I am now officially an Obamacare Outlaw – the deadline for sending in my “shared responsibility” penalty/tax whatever-it-is having come – and gone. Without my having sent them a burnished penny of the $695 they claim I “owe.”
Readers will recall that about three weeks ago, I received a thuggy letter from the Luca Brasi division of the government, which has become the collection agency for the health insurance mafia. The mafia succeeding in getting Obamacare passed into law – and don’t be deceived that it was Obama or the Democrats or even the Republicans who did it, though they played their necessary puppet parts. The power behind them is the insurance mafia, which saw the goldmine and determined to mine it – using the power of the government to dig out the gold at gunpoint.
Of course, the government wets its beak, too.
It gets power – over everything it hasn’t already got power over since literally everything imaginable can be claimed to “affect” health care and now that our health is no longer our business but the business of the government, everything we do (and don’t do) at least in principle now falls under the purview of the government.
Obamacare will be used to implement – just for starters – backdoor/extra-legal gun control via “health based” rulings on who may – and may not – own a gun.
For example, the recalcitrant patient – or the refusnik patient, such a myself. Declining to obtain health insurance will be punished in more than just one way. Those who do not “sign up” will likely be characterized as mentally troubled – and “we” (it is always “we” when in fact it is really they) can’t have the mentally troubled running around (or even staying home) with loaded guns on their person.
That kind of thing. Expect it, count on it.
And, don’t be tricked by the black face that has been put on Obamacare – a divide and conquer trick deliberately used to divert attention from the bipartisan decimation of our liberty to not be mugged by the insurance mafia via the joint efforts of Republicans and Democrats in the service of themselves and the mafia.
Never forget that the first arising of Obamacare – the prototype – was the work of the ultra-white Mitt Romney in Massachusetts and the deciding vote enshrining Obamacare nationally was the work of another white man, Justice John “we have the negatives” Roberts.
They – the mafia – and also the Republicans hope you’ll be stupid enough to blame your being in thrall to the mafia (and the government) on the black guy, i.e., Obama. But he was just the front man. It’s the men behind him that were decisive – and almost all of them were white.
Anyhow, I elected to say No to their order to send the insurance mafia outrageous sums of money to be “covered” – to buy a health insurance policy I do not feel the need for, primarily because I am healthy and don’t feel the need to pay for services I don’t use but secondarily because – thanks to the mafia’s profit lust – I am now expected (required) to buy “coverage” I absolutely, objectively have no need of and never will.
Such as maternity care, for instance.
I am a divorced, middle-aged guy. I doubt I will be having a baby anytime soon.
And “substance abuse counseling.” It is “covered,” but I neither smoke nor drink alcohol at all. Not because I am opposed. I just don’t. I might need “counseling” for my coffee addiction – but that is not “covered.”
The point is Obamacare not only forces me to buy “coverage,” it forces me to buy “coverage” for things that are irrelevant to me as an individual. It is as grotesque and stupid – and evil – as forcing me to buy flood insurance (my place being located on the spine of the Blue Ridge Mountains, at 3,200 feet; if the flood ever comes, we’ll all need an Ark).
I might, on my own, have bought a high-deductible catastrophic care policy – which would make some degree of sense for a man in my situation. Actual, you know, insurance. To cover an unpredictable, extremely unlikely and catastrophic event. The likelihood being the insurer would probably never have to pay out. Which would mean a cheap policy for me. But that would mean less profit for the insurance company – wherein lies the problem as they see it.
Obamacare is unaffordable because it “covers” everything you don’t need – and because it is used to “cover” entirely predictable, routine occurrences such as physical exams and allergy shots. It is exactly like using a car insurance policy to pay for tire rotations and oil changes – which would also swell in cost to absurd proportions if car insurance “covered” such things.
And, on the macro level, Obamacare is simply wealth redistribution. I am (and you are) to be mulcted for the sake of other people’s “care” – particularly, the “care” of the irresponsible – with a hefty profit percentage for the mafia on each transaction. Hence the verbiage about “shared responsibility.” It is not sufficient that I am responsible for myself. I must be responsible for others, too.
And you, too.
Well, no. I am not having it.
Hence, I did not buy it. And that triggered the thug letter, paw out, demanding $695. It was a very threatening letter (read more, here). And apparently, it is a new escalation of the mafia’s tactics. The letter appears to be very much like other letters the Luca Brasi division of the federal government sends to its victims.
But – according to my accountant – it is for the moment a mostly toothless roaring. He advises me to ignore the letter; to not respond in any way. Which would be very bad advice in every other case involving a demand letter from the Luca Brasi division of the government.
The difference here, according to my accountant, is an unintended side benefit (to us, the victims) of this Obamacare business and specifically, the tortured ruling of “Justice” Roberts anointing Obamcare with the oil of “constitutionality.” Congress, you see, went to great lengths to craft the Affordable Care Act and the Individual Mandate (to hand over money to the mafia) as a not-tax. Because they saw such a thing would be immediately declared to not be “constitutional” – the negatives of goat-fucking or whatever they have on him notwithstanding.
Hence, there are none of the usual enforcement mechanisms in the act.
But Mr. “Justice” Roberts anointed the ACA’s penalty for failure to pay the mafia (buy “coverage”) as a tax.
It is confusing – but salutary.
It means that the Luca Brasi division of the government is now attempting to collect the penalty for not handing money over to the mafia as a tax, but has no real power to collect it.
My accountant says they cannot – as they usually would – seize your bank account or garnish your wages or place a lien on your home. All they can do – for now – is assess what they claim you “owe” in “shared responsibility” against whatever they owe you in the form of a future tax refund, if any.
That is the key.
If you are never owed a refund, all that Luca Brasi can do, so my accountant tells me, is fume and stamp his feet and maybe send more threatening but toothless letters.
This is good news.
But there is also bad news – at least, potentially.
Luca Brasi may simply hold onto his chit, to speak. Each $695 (this is going to go up) in “shared responsibility” tax/fine/penalty whatever-they-are-calling-it for every year one elects to not send even more money to the mafia for “coverage,” plus the possibility of interest and penalties, adding up quietly until the day that Luca Brasi is empowered to collect via other means than deductions from refunds owed.
One can easily imagine a scenario.
Trump loses the next election. Or Congress is taken over by the out-of-the-closet socialists, like the hyphenated Ocasio-Ortiz and Trump’s rescission of the Individual Mandate is countermanded. This could absolutely happen. This fall, maybe.
And in the meanwhile, Luca bides his time. Something to think about as we “celebrate our freedoms” this week.
Or, not.
. . .
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“Meh, I’d never let myself get upset over what some anonymous stranger says on the interwebz. ”
I know it, Nunz. My usual entertainment for years was making off color comments to threads where people took themselves and their opinions too seriously. You know the type, the ones who can’t deliver the opening line of a knock-knock joke in less than 1000 words.
It was fun seeing them act as though I had just broke the internet by making a stupid joke and saying Ringmeat in there somewhere. Hey, here’s a good joke:
A democrat and a republican and a libertarian walk into a bar.
The bartender looks up and says, “Get the hell outta here.”
“One of my favorite assholes of history was Aaron Burr”
Eric, IMO whatever the failings on his part, Burr did humanity a great service when he met Hamilton on the field of honor and lit his ass up.
There are two things to watch about the shared responsibility payment:
1. Obamacare is not dead. The penalty and payment for future years ends at a federal level at the end of 2018, but not the mandate to buy insurance. That’s still on the books, minus the penalty. A future administration or Congress could simply reimpose the payment.
2. Watch the states. New Jersey has passed a law to assess its own shared responsibility payment on those without insurance, and it starts in 2019. This replaces the federal payment for Joisey residents without insurance. The payment buys no benefit—meaning no medical coverage—as far as I can tell; it simply goes into state coffers to plug budget gaps. You might say, “Well, this is Joisey, so whaddya expect?” Other states might get tempted too.
As I said in another post, forewarned is forearmed.
Hi Ek!
All true. The good news, though, is that the end of the penalty (individual mandate) effectively means the end of Obamacare; wait for the cost of premiums for those who still elect to buy “coverage” to go through the roof. It will become more and more unaffordable. See Julie’s post earlier. They are already exploding in cost. If they can’t force people to buy in, more and more won’t… kaboom. Bye bye, Obamacare.
But, you’re right – the swine will either “replace” Obamacare with something worse or the states will. Either way, if that happens, I am done. I won’t be “contributing” or “sharing” any “responsibility.” It is my line in the sand. Come get me, you greasy little bureaucrats. As I say, I am not a tough guy. I am a tired guy.
I would like nothing better than to kick Mitt Romney’s piano-key capped teeth into the back of his throat with my steel-toed boots.
I assume he’d be “covered.”
What does it say about a product that is so horrible, you have to be forced at gunpoint to buy it? Kind of reminds me of the Yugo, I believe they refused Japanese robot tech that would improve their product – and instead choose to force everyone to buy Yugo’s. Because they wanted to “employ more people”.
Hi Johnny,
Multiple evils here. Among them the fact that Obamacare is also a wealth redistribution plan. It is a means for compelling people who aren’t sick to pay for those who are; to punish the prudent and responsible for the sake of those who are neither.
Every time I go to Wal Mart I am reminded of this fact. I will find myself in line behind a morbidly obese person riding one of those electric carts, the cart full to overflowing with HFC-sweetened soda, chips and such. The person is either diabetic and arteriosclerotic or on the fast track to being one or both. Healthy people who aren’t disgusting fatbodies are forced to pay for the avoidable, chronic diseases of these fatbodies… it is infuriating.
Obama’s care was simply a way to continue allowing the medical cartel to strip mine the wealth of Americans. It purported to address the issues of high costs, but only made the costs higher. Anyone remember the grandiose promises of health insurance costing less than your cell phone bill? Healthcare is easily 75% more expensive than it should be – only because everyone wants to earn outsized profits. The fact the same care costs a fraction overseas should, I say should, wake the deluded. Every medical procedure that isn’t covered by insurance has gotten cheaper, but everything insurance covers has gotten more expensive? Suppose this is why they are after our guns? Because eventually everyone will realize their is only one way to stop the blatant theft?
Addressing the actual causes of the gross overpricing of healthcare will instantly fix the deficit. It will cause pain, but hey, the Maria felt pain when the g men went after them too.
Right you are, Todd!
It’s the obtuseness toward the obvious which I always find remarkable. How is it that anyone can believe, as one for-instance – that a law mandating insurance “cover” pre-existing conditions while disallowing individualization of risk assessment would cost less rather than more?
In any event, they can come from me if it comes to that. Not that I am a great hero – I’m not. Far from it. But I am very got-damned tired. And have just had enough.
Eric, does a rancher let the cows make risk assessments for their own lives? No. So why should a system of human farming let people do so?
Once I started viewing the systems we live under as getting the most out of us all for the lowest net cost to the ruling class everything made sense. The medical system and all its costs are just ways to claw back the value of our productivity that they had to pay for. The idea is that we begin with zero and end with zero. The wealth we create goes to the top of the pyramid.
I’m tired too, Eric.
The only thing that keeps me going, is the prospect of getting out of here in the near future, and away from all of these brainwashed zombies.
And just wait till 2020…when Hitlery gets in…or just as bad: There’s a civil war, and we’ll be as popular as dog-doo on a hot afternoon, because we won’t be fighting for either side; and regardless of who wins…we lose.
Morning, Nunz!
I may write about this dilemma… whether to stay or go. It is a very tough question for those of us halfway through life’s journey, considerably vested in our lives here. But then, our lives may be worth nothing here in the very near future. But no one can divine the future, either.
It would be so much easier to decide if I were 20 years younger…
Hi Ya, Eric!
Making huge changes in one’s life; venturing into the unknown; and giving up the familiar for a “no going back” scenario, always seems scary- but I can tell you from personal experience, that when you have a “vision” and are doing such things for the right reasons; for principle; and to better your life and extricate yourself from what you know is a bad situation that will only get worse, I can tell you that it feels good!
It gives you renewed vitality, as you see the world afresh, and are not shackled by former chains; You can LIVE! You feel like a teenager again, having an unhindered world to explore, and actually being able to live and function without constantly being squelched by the police state!
You can enjoy life again. Everything, and every day need not be a battle, and a depressing realization that your life is controlled and that you can no longer do what you want.
Just think of the prospect of living without government! We can still experience this, as many of the inhabitants of the world do.
The things we may have to give up- like smooth-paved roads and fast cars, and air-conditioned department stores, etc. well….can we even really enjoy what remains of them here, where we have them?
Libertarianism is a lot like Christianity: We can live our faith(ideology) and practice it….or we can just admire it in principle, while being mere pew-warmers/armchair quarterbacks [ewww…sports!] and never really practicing it because it doesn’t seem easy enough, and we love all the trappings of the present world (the authoritarian state), and let those little trinkets distract us from the important things we could have if only we’d pursue them.
And we KNOW how things are going to go, here. If you have any doubts, just look at the people around you. The ideas, beliefs and values that have been bred into the average Westerner over many generations now, which have culminated in what we see around us on a daily basis, are not just going to melt away in our lifetime, even if the entire machinery of government were to perish overnight.
Power, once acquired, is not readily given up, but is held onto by those who possess it, at all costs; and all who oppose it are counted as enemies to be destroyed.
Oh, and here is an appropriate song to listen to while composing your new article!:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7r0iuoj-KNU
We were told exactly why government got involved in medical care back in 1910. Doctors were not making enough money. It has been a century of making more money for everyone involved in the medical industry. Ways of pushing prices higher and then finding new reserves of wealth to pay those higher prices only to repeat the cycle. The general public reacts as if I am crazy when I tell them.
Hi Brent,
Yep, had lodge practice not been destroyed by collusion between the medical establishment and government, healthcare today would be accessible and affordable, even to the poor. Voluntary cooperation and a freer market solved the supposed health care issue over 100 years ago.
http://www.freenation.org/a/f12l3.html
Cheers,
Jeremy
Here’s a link to an audio version of the essay.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0nDoS0Bws0
It’s about 7 minutes long and well worth a listen. Brent, those who think you’re crazy are either ignorant or hopelessly conditioned to believe the lying propaganda about the “evils of lodge practice”. As always, the call for licensing was driven by established industry insiders for the purpose of eliminating or severely hindering market access. And, as is still true, this protectionist racket was sold as necessary for the public safety.
Astonishingly, the cost to join a medical lodge, which provided members with high quality (for the time) medical care, was about $50.00 a year in todays dollars.
Jeremy
Profit is just the icing on the cake. The real issue is control and tracking- and Obammycare (or any other such boondoggle) is the framework which will allow unprecedented tracking of everything (not just health records) and regulation of everything we do [even more so than already exists] on a national level. It “connects all of the dots”- so that everything you do (since everything affects your health and “saaaaaafety”) will become recorded and inter-related- be it meds you take; when, where and what you drive; what you eat; your physical stats; what you do at work, etc. etc.
I was already exempt from the individual mandate before it came into law, by virtue of being homeless by the federal government’s own definition.
Hi Bill,
I think you may be on to something there… .
Staying below the “poverty level” will do it too, if I’m not mistaken- which, for us single guys also means being below the taxable income/filing level….which is probably why they give “free” Obammycare/medicaid/whatever to those who are foolish enough to sign up for it, as it egts people into the system who otherwise would fly below the radar.
I continue to maintain my own health/pay for my own care, thank you very much, Uncle, and remain below the radar!
Gee, Bill, you qualify for the Obammycare exemption under TWO categories: Homeless, and below the poverty level, you lucky devil!
I can live comfortably on my $971 Social Security grant while saving about $100 a month. Those who can’t will be the first to file for bankruptcy when the cash I’m hoarding becomes extinct in the approaching deflation.
Luck isn’t involved.
Everyone, please read this. http://annavonreitz.com/uscitizenship.pdf
Chances are you are NOT a US citizen subject to the laws of the UNITED STATES.
I know, I know, you were told you are since you were a wee child. Some will say it’s a silly “legal theory” espoused by “sovereign citizens”- an oxymoron, by the way, but at least take a look and decide for yourself.
Okay, so she says that most of us are not United States Citizens, as defined by the laws of the United States.
Try telling that to the IRS if you ever filed a prior year’s tax return, that you are not a United States Citizen. Then read the oath you are adhering to by signing the return, which states that you are signing it “as a United States Citizen….” among other things.
I agree; our rights are stolen from us, instead of being voluntarily surrendered. This is one example.
Fraud is fraud. You were tricked, deceived. Now correct it.
The IRS is actually quite vulnerable: https://nesaranews.blogspot.com/2013/12/linda-wall-wins-over-irs.html
Your political status is your choice. Now make it. Stop thinking that you are a citizen.
Why are you taking oaths, anyway?
Rog, you mean well, but it doesn’t matter. THEY have the big guns and the hired goons. You can quote all the principles of law you want to- try making them abide by them. They’re still going to drag you into court, and a jiry of authoritarian-collectivists who are faithful to Big Brother, or just ignorant, are going to vote you guilty, just like they did to LArken Rose and many others who had perfectly sound righteous defenses.
By the Constitution alone we shouldn’t have to participate in the tax charade- as just forcing one to file is a violation of the 4th and 5th amendments, and many other things…but try getting them to abide even by THAT, which is supposed to be the supreme law of the land, and which our overlords, errr, I mean “servants” have taken an oath to uphold.
They rule by power- not law.
Keep your income below taxable level. Don’t narc on yourself (i.e. NEVER file a tax return) and don’t participate in any of their BS…..fly under the radar- THAT is the only way to secure a little freedom until we can get out of the police state.
Thinking you’re going to win by any mechanism of law, is like being named Schlomo and thinking you’re going to avoid being sent to Auschwitz because you can prove that what the Germans are doing is contrary to their constitution…..
T’aint gonna happen,bubba.
That citizen stuff is right up there with that “strawman” and “freeman on the land” BS. All people who try this crap get owned in court. Literally.
It has always been a matter of selection, not birth.
Great job Eric. The insurance mafia began at least as far back as Nixon. Kaiser-Permanente introduced universal coverage and Nixon loved it. His political troubles prevented us from being forced into it then.
He did close the ‘gold window’ but that’s another story. My wife and I both opted out of health care extortion upon receiving our Demand note$. If we wanted socialism/communism we could move to almost any European country with the added benefit of high MPG diesel fuled cars to boot.
Eric, I see the re-education camp in your future. I’m looking forward to the arts and crafts part of it. Bingo on Saturday nights too! We’ll have fun.
This reminds me of Idaho, and the 25.00 recovery fee on top of child support I was assessed
annually. (federal)
When I first saw it 10 years ago I called and ask what the hell is this??Recovery??Recovery for what??
I was told (with strait face I am assuming)that it was to help pay down national debt.
So I in return said “how did me, 10 years ago having sex with a women make me responsible for national
debt”?!!!
So being a student of Lysander Spooner i didn’t pay it “Fuck em!!
Besides it was a federal thing, and Idaho State mafia new they couldn’t legally collect.(Unilateral
contract)
So the child collection mafia would just keep putting it on your monthly statement and hope you would be dumb enough to pay it once a year.Or at some point.
It kept adding up year after year until a few years ago when almost done on
my legal “Contractual” “Divorce Decree” obligation. I was Inexplicably told that I was in arrears
for my child support payments???
How??What??.How could I be? Been paying the 308.27 a month for 18 years?
Some where the Gambino’s and Genovassi’s had struck a deal.
So now I had to pay almost a month extra to get out of Vic Payment to
Mafia, Or Sex Tax as I call it
Thanks Eric great article as usual!!
I’d like to just take a giant pair of pliers to 0bama’s giant teeth, and make them hurt.
Those power-hungry Congress-critters called this “health insurance” to help perpetuate the scam, rather than calling if what it is: Medical payment insurance. They intentionally conflated continual visits to medical personnel as being the same as your health.
Health insurance is what you do to yourself to avoid having to incur medical payments. Exercise, healthy eating…those are examples of health insurance. Judicious use should result in avoiding medical payments. But making medical payments does not in any way protect you from having to make more medical payments in the future.
PresidenT oBarnum..
“My accountant says they cannot – as they usually would – seize your bank account or garnish your wages or place a lien on your home. All they can do – for now – is assess what they claim you “owe” in “shared responsibility” against whatever they owe you in the form of a future tax refund, if any.
That is the key.”
No, that is not the key. Since your accountant is giving legal advice, badly, ask him what is legally stopping the IRS from collecting on the “shared responsibility”, that is, a TAX as more particularly confirmed by the SCOTUS. Ask your accountant to cite the specific tax code provisions that clearly state the IRS cannot collect this tax and furthermore ask him to provide the relevant case law that backs up his assertion that the IRS will not collect a constitutionally valid tax because it cannot collect a constitutionally valid tax.
What your accountant should have told you in lieu of olympian assurance to the contrary is that the IRS and the Government in general does ILLEGAL things all the time, and consistently fails to follow the law in matters where there is ZERO legal precedent one way or the other. New laws are passed all the time that are unconstitutional and YEARS go by before we are none the wiser. This “penalty” however has passed that hurdle and declared constitutional. What is then going to stop the IRS from hauling you into tax court over this matter? Are you going to ignore a court summons too? What is going to stop the IRS from accusing you of filing a fraudulent tax return or creatively designating your willful failure to pay a tax as tax evasion. The IRS can do whatever it wants until and cares not for some willing fool who fights the beast and every last bit of blood is drained from his lifeless body. The IRS has stables of attorneys and collection agents to deal with such petty nuisances. It is rarely wise to fight the government because it violates your principles or otherwise offends your conception of ethics. But to each their own.
This will not end well, IMHO. Keep us posted!
Hi Jack,
I agree they can do whatever they wish – irrespective of “the law.” The thug agency is peraps the most lawless of Uncle’s many agencies. However, if you go to the thugs’ web site you can read for yourself their own statement that they will not pursue this in the same manner as other taxes, precisely because this is not about tax debt. It is a punishment for not buying insurance. Congress wrote the ACA that way. The court ruled it a tax, but the law does not empower them to collect it as such.
But, you’re right – the law is immaterial.
The good news is the “individual mandate” has been repealed. So this year is the last year the “shared responsibility” punishment applies… until the mandate is reimposed, anyhow.
Regardless – I won’t pay. If that means they come after me so be it. I truly do not care. If they are going to bleed me white, then I’ll just become a tax parasite like the rest.
Gibs muh dat!
Yes, you can ignore them until they garnish wages (if you have those) or simply take what they say you owe from your bank checking/savings account. All those have SSNs attached and anything in those w/ your SSN is fair game. And they will add penalty and interest. This I presume is for your 2017 taxes (as the tax on not having the right health insurance is currently not enforced for 2018, so they say).
So you “will” pay sooner or later. if you own property they can place a lien on that which must be paid off before you can re-title your vehicle or sell your home/trailer, etc. They will take some of those proceeds when you sell it (or you won’t be able to get it re-titled, re-deeded.) Or barring that, they can actually seize those assets, sell them and keep their “share” and after costs, give you the remainder. They have been doing this for years and you will be just more grist for their mill.
The “shared responsibility payment” is just part of your income tax liability, as are the additional interest/penalty amounts.
Since you aren’t a lawyer, your claim that they “can’t” collect this as a tax is likely incorrect. While I sympathize with you, bluster won’t keep them from stealing your money.
Hi Muggles,
Whether I am a lawyer isn’t relevant; what is relevant is what the law states – and the thugs say. The ACA specifically denies the federal thugs the usual enforcement power which applies to income taxes. The “shared responsibility” payment is not a tax on income; even the thugs who enforce tax law state this openly – hence the verbiage about “shared responsibility,” whatever that is.
They admit that they lack the legal power to seize any money or garnish wages or place liens. It’s on the federal thugs’ web site.
I grant you that they could simply choose to do whatever they wish, regardless and likely ill – so, we’ll see.
But maybe this time enough people like me will refuse – and if enough of them do, it could be politically unpalatable to start going all NKVD on them.
That is why I did what I did – and why I wrote what I wrote.
I am hoping it will have an effect. Join me in this one, people. It is possible to beat back this noxious idea of being forced to buy the “services” of a private, for-profit mafia.I understand that being forced to pay the government mafia is a principle long-established. But for hate’s sake, maybe we can at least throw a monkey wrench in the works of the private mafia.
Living in a police state is dehumanizing.
Americans are just slaves, zombies, and sheep now.
Amen, Libertarian –
To us as well as them; assuming they – the people who are the police state – have any humanity left. They may not. In which case, Orwell’s scenario may have been entirely feasible… and on its way.
Yep. It’s disgusting to see a grown man call the thug who is harassing him “Sir”. “Yes sir, officer, sir!”. (I go out of my way to avoid interaction with armed goVERMINt goons….as I tend to be very arrogant with them…which can be quite dangerous these days…)
like all things “government”…it started with a germ of an idea that sounded good in theory and morphed into a steaming shit-pie of a frankenstein’s monster. my premium 2.5x’d and the deductible more than doubled. didn’t quite work put as they planned…
Hi Mike,
Of course. It was inevitable, obviously so. Imagine what would happen to the cost of car insurance if “pre-existing conditions” such as a record of at-fault accidents and DWI convictions had to be covered and that people used car insurance to “cover” tire rotations and oil changes. Do you suppose the cost of everyone else’s policy would go up or down?
This is one of the main reasons Obamacare has driven the cost of being “covered” through the roof. But it was emotionally huckstered most effectively. It is so unfair that people with pre-existing conditions (e.g., chronic/serious health issues) can’t afford “care” or it costs so much.
Well, yes. Life is unfair. But forcibly Harrison Bergeroning (so to speak) everyone is even more unfair.
I can run eight miles up McAfee’s Knob and back, no sweat. This is unfair to the person who is out of shape or simply can’t do it. So we break my legs. Or we install – at whatever it costs – an escalator to schlepp the not-able up the trail.
That is what Obamacare amounts to.
I am not allowed to simply pay as I go – for the services I need (and not subsidize the services others need). I and others similarly situated are not even allowed, under Obamacare, to buy a simple, catastrophic coverage policy (which calls bullshit on their “societal costs” argument) that I will likely never need but which would “cover” me if I get cancer or have a heart attack. But otherwise, I would pay a very small amount each month for such a policy, which would be affordable precisely because it only covers Big Things, which in turn leaves me financially capable of paying for the small ones rather than “coverage.”
Clearly, one of the true purposes of mandatory insurance is not to “cover” people. It is to bankrupt and so control them.
Eric, Harrison Bergeroning? There you go again!
Hey, mike, maybe it’s working like they panned after all. Leading up to it, there was that horrible Hillarycare idea, back when she was co-president (remember that remark she made, “WE are the president”). After that, the collectivists kept talking about how it ain’t no fair and everybody should have “healthcare” and then that eventually segued into”everybody should have insurance”.
They made it sound as though everybody was going to get free insurance when they promised that nobody would have to go without medical insurance. They didn’t reveal that what they were going to do was require everybody to buy insurance whether they had the money or not. I guess we should have known they were up to some kinda shit like that.
Morning, Ed!
Among the many outrageousness of Obamacare is the fat that it’s not even care we’re being forced to buy. It is insurance.
For-profit insurance.
It amazes me that this does not outrage more people.
Think on it. The federal government is forcing people to hand over their money to a private, for-profit business. It’s worse than socialized medicine because it’s not socialized medicine. It is outright private profiteering at gunpoint.
And because of this, I am feeling a growing contempt and hatred toward doctors as much as the insurance mafia and the government. Because doctors are now just another parasitical hand reaching into my pocket, as bad as government school workers and other such.
Yep, in years gone by, yo had medical treatment, the along came medical insurance, which was a gift to employees that the government couldn’t tax, kind of an extra pay benefit that corporations gave their employees.
Soon, insurers went from administering these employee benefits for corporations to offering the same thing as a policy to others who were too incurious to see that it was a scam. After awhile, Congress critters saw that this was something they could hold up and say, “This ain’t no fair. Unemployed poor people don’t have this”
Meanwhile insurers had gradually taken over hospitals and had tied doctors up with payment schedules, etc. What was once just medical treatment as an employee benefit came to be known as insurance, the later called “healthcare insurance”.
The average welfare addict has been made to see “heffcayuh” as a human right, so they were told that they were going to get free “shawnce” so they would have heffcayuh.
It makes me want to go get some mental heffcayuh ’cause my shawnce ain’t covering nothing no more.
Amen, Ed!
I just faced the choice of either paying for some dental work I needed – replacing an old filing, cleaning the other teefus – or let the bad tooth get much worse and pay the “shared responsibility” payment.
It’s an interesting juxtaposition. The government says it cares so much about my care, yet it obliges me to forego necessary care in order to literally just throw money away that I would otherwise have available to pay for that care on insurance.
Hence my choice.
They can come get me. If this country has degenerated to the extent that a man who pays for his own care rather than paying fines for not buying unaffordable insurance which would not cover the care he actually needs is regarded as a criminal offender, then I welcome the end of it.
Welcome to the club, Eric!
Eric, you weren’t kidding when you wrote “just wait, I’ve got another story on deck” were you? (Again: Paging Mr Serling, I wanna go home!).
I’ve been self-employed pretty much my entire adult life. I’ve done well now and then, and not so well other times. Nature of the beast, right? Well, I’m closing in on my 6th decade, and I’ve paid for medical insurance most of the time. Cross/shield catastrophic. I’m one healthy guy. Never got a nickle’s worth of benefit from over 40 years of paying in.
Then Commie-Care reared it’s ugly head. Guess what? I couldn’t afford it anymore. After decades of paying, with never a claim of any sort, they now want me to pay almost 5 times what I did before?! Well f*#k them! I’m with ya, brother: I’m done. I haven’t given another cent to that foul cartel. And I won’t. (They may cage me and steal a whole bunch of my nickles, but that’s a different thing).
More people need to do what you are doing. Remember Miss Wolfe, the writer? The one who wrote something like: “We’re in that awkward stage where it’s too late to work within the system but too early to shoot the bastards.”? She also mentioned that if we just ignored the guvmint, it’d go away. Starve it. I sure love the idea.
Me, I wanna go Gray Man, but it’s difficult. When you have convictions, when you know what’s right, it’s just so damned hard to stay silent. I wish you the best, man. I wish me and the others here the best, too.
But I ain’t paying.
I think the art the bastards have mastered is balancing at the “awkward stage where it’s too late to work within the system but too early to shoot”
Off topic, but kind of on point, I saw this one today:
http://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/a-mexican-town-overthrew-their-local-government-and-things-are-going-great_07022018
Seems a little town in Mexico no longer has a government. The townsfolks ran the town politicians’ asses off in 2011 and told the corrupt police force to disband or die. It just warms the anarchist cockles of my heart.
Hi Ed,
I suspect it will have to come to this. To overt resistance. They will not leave us be. It is not enough, anymore, to simply live one’s life, not harm anyone else, provide for oneself. The bastards keep pushing.
I am self-employed. I do not have the means to buy their purposefully unaffordable “service.” I italicize the foregoing to emphasize that they are trying to make it impossible to not work in a corporate cube farm, under the thumb of corporate employment, hand-to-mouth… by making it both unaffordable to obtain “coverage” otherwise and to make it illegal to be without “coverage.” In order to comply with their law, I would have to spend at least $400/month for the worst (most useless to me) “plan” there is. That would make it almost impossible for me to pay my other bills – and forget having anything left over to save or for the occasional discretionary purchase.
Well, god damn them.
I will not have it, as I wrote. If they want to come and get me, so be it.
The top goal is to keep people focused on survival. Otherwise they can’t be ruled. Keep them needing more and more to keep their heads above water on a monthly basis.
not sure i am ready to take ANY advice from mexico. they had 130 candidates for office murdered this year. they are a failed nation by any standard and the town that tossed the cops and crooked pols already has a new crop of crooks and crooked pols. i have long advised that they don’t sneak into america…they escape from mexico. can’t say i blame ’em. years ago i told a crew of 8 mexicans (4 were legal) i was working with that if i was them i’d load my truck with guns and go take back my country. i told ’em that the same folks that want nothing to do with them here would be 100% behind them if they wanted a proper revolution. not sure i think that now. regrettably, i don’t think muricans have the balls to stand against the creeping tyranny.
Mike, not only do most Americans not have the ‘nads; they don’t even have the desire. They want this tyranny. They demand it. Half the country hates Trump because they don’t think he’s socialist enough; and the ones who like him, like that he advocates their brand of tyranny.
Look at all of the liberties we’ve lost. There have been no riots in the streets; no insurrections; no protests. Hardly even a word can be heard, except by the tiniest minority.
But take away their Obammycare; their Medicaid; their Socialist Security; their TSA goons at the airports; their DUI checkpoints, and everyone would be up in arms.
It’s not that they don’t have the ‘nads; it’s just that they have no objections to tyranny; and in-fact, demand more.
The very idea of liberty is lost on them. For instance, as Eric often points out, the idea of having actually harmed someone in order to be charged with a crime, or of being presumed innocent until proven guilty, is so lost on these retards that if you so much as try and explain the absurdity of DUI checkpoints, and of ever-decreasing BAC levels to constitute “drunk driving”, no matter how thoroughly and articulately you explain, all they get out of it is that “you’re in favor of drunk driving”.
There is no hope for the vast majority of Americans. 13 year-old kids 40 years ago were like geniuses compared to the average a-dolt today.
Morning, Nunz!
I agree with your summary. The 200 foot-tall wave we’re facing is something you can’t just beat back anymore. It has to crash, do its destructive work and then we start over. I think perhaps the saying attributed to Ignatius Loyola was essentially on the money: “Give me a child for the first ten years and he is mine for life.” What I mean is that most people can’t break free of their conditioning, which isn’t actually conditioning but rather a stunted capacity. They never develop the habit of thinking precisely but only situationally. Each thing is treated as a discrete thing, unrelated to any other thing. It is what Rand meant when she talked about the “anti-conceptual mentality.” Once you understand this, you understand what we are up against – and also the source waters (government schools, mostly, but also a culture that reinforces situational morality (which means no morality), subjectivism and utilitarianism. In which “what works” becomes the standard for determining whether a thing should be done or not (and no worries about using force to impose it, if it “works,” according to those who have and will use that force).
Well-said (as usual!) Eric.
And great Ayn Rand reference!
We’ve been so conditioned, for so long. Our ancestors living under kings and cardinals, and being kept ignorant for so long; our more recent ancestors who came here forgot about freedom and were offered prosperity as a surrogate…and then lately we’ve had the schools and the media….
Old Ignats would be in his glory today…he gets the kids from the time they’re a few months old, and has them forever.
I don’t think you get it,mike. This little town has done this in defiance of Mexico. They’re in Michoacan, which is kind of a rebellious state (yes, it’s actually Los Estados Unidos de Mexico) anyway. Their takeover was in response to what you’re describing. They don’t have any cops or pols, crooked or otherwise. Read the article.
Seems like your ratio of new car reviews to political content is rapidly tilting toward the political.
Who can blame you? The new cars are all so boring and homogeneous that they’re not interesting at all.
Conversely, the political pot is so closing to boiling that most of the froggies are beginning to complain about the heat.
And “At Last,” you’re beginning to move beyond simple rants to the point of actually discussing what to do!
Wishing you All The Best as you depart on a new editorial course.
Hi Mike,
I’m trying to do more of both, actually! 🙂
There’s usually one new article every day – and one new car review each week; sometimes two (if I get two cars in a week). Hoping to provide both of the things which interest the people coming here. There are some who like both, others who like one – or the other. Hopefully, Im keeping both groups happy!
PS: They just dropped off a Benz S63 AMG! 🙂
In a totalitarian society (ours) everyone’s “turn” comes. I’ve had mine and now you have yours.
The sheeple don’t usually care, but when their turn comes they start talking about their “rights”, sounding libertarian – when it’s too late.
Proposed solutions are usually met with “that won’t work” while doing nothing to stop the lawlessness.
Glad I am not the only one trying to dodge this one. Welcome to the club…….. I have been happily uninsured the entire time of Obamacare. In fact, in the last twenty five years I have probably had medical insurance about only a year and a half or so. Hasn’t been a problem. Probably won’t be until I am a senior citizen (I’m 44 now). I imagine if the IRS does get teeth to collect, it will still be less then what all that insurance would have cost over the years.
It’s single healthy people like us most able to monkey wrench this crap. Most people aren’t able to say no. So we should be doing it to to end this nonsense. Like what should be happening with airport “security”. Don’t fly, don’t buy. Tell these rent seekers to go to h@ll!
If we had a real free market, catastrophic medical insurance (it would be medical insurance, not health insurance) for someone like me and you should cost less then $15 a month, if that. Yeah, don’t laugh. But it would exist like affordable cell phones exist.
In a free market medical care itself would be cheap. Astoundingly cheap. For those rare things that might not be cheap and insurance would be good for, it would probably cost about what you suggest.
Hi Brent,
Yes – and we have an analog in vet care, which is much less expensive because there is (generally) no insurance shysterism. It is fee-for-service. When I take my cats in for a check-up/annual shots it’s usually about $60 – cash. Nothing is “covered.” But rather than waste money on “coverage,” I can afford to pay for their care.
Vet care has actually gone up because of the rising costs of schooling and starting a practice. Unfortunately, newer vets have turned to shysterism in order to pay the bills. People think differently (irrationally) about animals versus 40 years ago, so it’s easy for vets to emotionally manipulate them into getting vaccines and operations their pet doesn’t need. Animal owners of yesteryear did not spend or could not afford to spend thousands of dollars to “treat” their pet’s serious illness. Instead, they were humanely put to sleep.
The well-established rural vets are usually cheap and have integrity, but they’re now few and far between. I make my living in show dogs, so I don’t mind driving several hours to find one. They aren’t brainwashed by animal rights/Agenda 21 propaganda, so it’s well worth it.
Morning, Handler!
This is very true. My local vet is a gem – but as you say, she is a country/local vet, not a suburban/city vet. And, of course, most of the locals here can’t afford to spend the insane amounts of money on their animals that people are effectively forced to spend on their own care. Speaking of which: These bastards expect me to send them $695 which I very much need to have in reserve for anything that comes up regarding myself or my animals. That sum would “cover” stitches for myself, for example – or to set a cat’s broken leg or pull a bad tooth.
But I am expected to just throw it down the maw of the got-damned government.
Well, no. Not anymore. Molon labe.
I do not say that because I am a tough guy; I’m not. I’m a tired guy.
And I have had enough.
I cannot picture what my life would be like if wife and kids were thrown into the equation. I don’t think I could make it being self-employed. I’d be just another one of those poor schmucks working a corporate slave job in order keep things copacetic.
We as MGTOW guys are the only men on the planet that are truly free. We have the luxury of doing what we want whenever we want and not having to answer to anybody. And we have the time to think freely! How many men today can say that?
So true, Hand. A title for a video on Youtube said it all (I just saw the title- didn’t need to watch the vid- as the title said it all): Most Married American Men Are Broke.
It’s not even that we couldn’t support a wife and kid. Heck, between growing a lot of one’s own food; or just the stuff that gets thrown out/wasted because most staple items aren’t packaged for bachelors, it really wouldn’t require much to provide what she NEEDS…but what woman was ever satisfied with what she needs?
A friend of mine went to a party once where all of the other guests were couples. He told me that at first he felt funny being the only 40-something bachelor [He’s not one of us!] but after a while, after talking to other guys there, he came to realization that all of the other guys envied him, because he could do what he wanted, and is free, and the future is his- whereas they all had the ball-and-chain, and would be going home with her, who may’ve been attractive and pleasant once, but is now an androgynous pain-in-the-ass -and unless she has an accident or gets cancer or something, that will be their life for decades to come. The rest of their life is mapped out, and they’re not looking forward to it. And if they get divorced, it’s just as bad or worse, because then he’ll be living in a room above a store somewhere, and between her and Uncle, he won’t have a dime left, as she enjoys his former house with someone else.
I used to think it would’ve been nice if I had found Miss Right when I was young. Now I thank God Almighty that I never did!
I’m free! My time is my own! My money is my own! I don’t work hard!(I hardly work). I’m peaceful, quiet and happy. Any thoughts of romance are far better just remaining thoughts, as that is the only way you get to enjoy a young woman with a perfect body and good character who shares your values…because no such thing exists in the real world.
Hardly working may be the way to go. In the corporate world the married cucks all stick together. They don’t understand why I don’t want to travel. They are all ready to go all the time. They have wives to get away from. Business travel for me is just hassles and tortures.
Morning, Brent!
I think this business of hardly working may be exactly the ticket. It’s doable if you can buy a small place outright in a low-tax area. Eliminate mortgage costs; greatly reduce property tax costs. Now you have a very low cost of living. And if you can earn most of what you earn in cash…
That’s exactly what I’ve done Eric. Best move of my life. I’m debt free. Have a modest off grid solar electric system. Built my own house. Grow most of my own vegetables. Hunt, trap and fish for all my meat. My regular bills are cell phone, satellite internet and car insurance. Make a little money selling on eBay and Craigslist.
Ditto, Eric & Grizzly!
My modus operandi exactly! Such is the way of being as free as one can be in the Western world today.
Iwent the used mobile home route- as even now, you can still get nice (not “fixer-uppers”) singlewides for between $7K-$15K.- 1000 square feet of living space for the price of a used car. -and it further reduces you tax obligation. (I’ve thought about building a house now that I’m here, and free and clear- but why? I’ll be leaving the country; The modest house I’d build likely wouldn’t have great sales appeal; and it would only increase my property taxes by c. 100-200%!)
Living below “the poverty line”(LOL!) sure seems like paradise to me!
“Vacations” always puzzled me too, Brent. I don’t see how they differ from bidness travel, ‘cept that the wife and kids come along.
People spend a whole day traveling…to live for a few days in what amounts to a small apartment; they go here and go there, and see people in costumes putting on shows, while in the company of a bunch of other tourists; have to eat food prepared by others the whole time; and then spend a day getting home again.
I DON’T GET IT!!! WHAT IS THE APPEAL?!
My vet here wanted $225.00 to neuter my cat. I’ll repeat that: My vet wanted $225.00 to snip the sacks off my 6 month old cat.
So I went a little farther out (about 45 minutes out of my way) and paid $65.00.
My cat is fine, in case anyone was having hysterics over the financial neglect of my cats testes.
Hi Julie,
Similar situation in my neck. In The Woods, the vet (friend of mine) charges about a third what vets down in the valley charge… and her services (and caring) are superior.
PS: Glad to find another woman posting this week!
It’s insane. Getting back to your Obama/Hillary/RomneyCare fiasco – I feel extremely old for a 30 year old to be posting this but: Back in my day, Approximately any day before January 2014 arrived, my health insurance with $100.00 bucks a month. It covered EVERYTHING. You need to see a specialist? Well that’s free. You need medication? Well that’ll be a fifteen or five dollar copay.
Then 2014 happened. My first bill was $256.00. I lost my free specialist/primary care visits completely unless I hit my unattainable deductible of something akin to $9,000.00. You want to see a specialist? You need to sign up on WhoeverCare’s website and register your primary doctor who has to give you a referral and then renew that referral every six months. Medication? $30.00 copay if you’re fortunate and your pharmacy doesn’t just outright determine that they don’t want to use your insurance anymore (I cannot blame them for that).
Now my insurance is $498.00. So I simply hung up the towel. That’s a significant portion of my rent payment. I’m basically paying rent twice a month. They and any red blooded American can seriously go EXPLETIVE themselves if they aided and abetted this fiasco of what I’ll politely call ‘legislation’ and not just outright extortion.
Good for you, Eric.
Amen, Julie!
I think you did the right thing. I’m assuming you’re basically healthy and at 30, the chances of your having some major thing to deal with are probably small. Given the extortionate cost of insurance (mark that, not “care” – you are being dunned for the profit of the insurance mafia) you are far better off just setting aside the money for just in case. The kind of “coverage” you (and I) are forced to buy is both unaffordable and stupid – and unaffordable because it is stupid; on purpose, I think.
What do I need maternity coverage for? I am a single/divorced guy. I don’t smoke and I barely drink; what the heck do I need “substance abuse counseling” for?
I have no chronic health issues. Low normal BP. I am in better shape than probably two-thirds of guys in their 20s. So why would I pay $400-$500/month to be “covered” for things I don’t need? Even if I could afford it….
I’m betting the same applies to you. And like you, I am not working to pay insurance. Salt in the wound being that the mafia is not some kind of charity outfit. They make obscene profits off us. And I use the word obscene because these profits are obtained by force and fraud.
Precisely. Maternity care for men is…hilariously depressing to read about. More to the point, I’m surprised they would mandate that given how much they disdain the growing family.
I take one medication. And it’s actually cheaper for me to buy it outright every month than pay insurance and THEN pay the ridiculously expensive co-pay on top of that. It’s cheaper to do this not by a small margin either – I’m currently “saving” over $100. Of course, I’m currently spending twice as much as I originally did before a majority of my generation went completely insane to suck the teat of their parent funded insurance for them.
Also, Eric, have you ever looked in to pet insurance? It’s like they got their best ideas from the Affordable Care Act. If only they could find a way to make it mandated on every pet adopted or licensed…..
Hi Julie,
When I got my first real (salaried) job working as an editorial writer, I was offered the option to buy insurance. I declined. I was in my 20s and didn’t feel the need. I decided it made more sense to save the money – which I did – and put it toward the down payment on my first house. Which is why I was able to buy my first house. I am certain part of the reason so many kids recently out of college are still living at home or with a bunch of roommates has to do with their wasting a very large percentage of their pay on “coverage” they could do without. Were it not for the ACA, they could buy a catastrophic coverage policy with a high deductible; this would be very affordable – unlike the Not-so-Affordable Care Act (which is really the Unaffordable Coverage Act).
On pet insurance: I am lucky in that I live in a rural area and have a local vet who is one of those old school practitioners who isn’t in it for mercenary reasons; she genuinely cares about the animals and her rates are extremely reasonable.
Same here- $65 to neuter Ralph The Cat. Back on Lawn Guyland (Long Island) I’m sure it would cost at least $300 now.
Sad thing is, most people here still don’t do it- they let their dogs and cats run lose and make babies like ghetto-dwellers, and the majority come to no good, because the people can’t even be bothered to take care of them, or expend any effort to find them homes.
It seems country people are effed-up in the head too- just in different ways than city people. (Although I still prefer the country variety!).
This lady I’ve kniown since I was 5 years old, back in NYC…. every cat she ever gets just “coincidentally” needs three to four thousand dollars worth of “treatment” from her vet; a special diet; yada, yada…. and the poor creatures end up living in some medicated/artificial stupor from all of the unnatural food, operations and drugs.
Meanwhile, cats show up here…I feed them….they live happy healthy lives (2 have worked their way into my house!)
There are no good vets in NYC- and it’s becoming hard to find any here in Bumpkinsville, even, as the good old ones retire or die off. New vet where I go….I refer to her as Dr. Dingbat. On the rare occasions I need anything, I call and make sure one of the older male vets will be there. The ones that make farm calls and work on cows and horses. They don’t need $300 tests to know that your cat’s pecker is clogged up and his bladder is backing up….they just have to touch him.
Handler, I put to you that those vaccines are CAUSING a lot of the health problems which have become so common in pets today. (Eric, I’m surprised at you for vaccinating your cats! Would you vaccinate a kid?).
Animals never used to have cancer and all of the other degenerate diseases in their short lives that have become so common among humans…but since vaccinations have become the norm, so have all the same diseases that humans get!
I don’t vaccinate my animals- be they dogs, cats, chickens, cows… They all lead long healthy lives (Unless they came here already with problems)- My dogs have always lived to be at least 15 (which is great for big dogs) without cancer or arthritis or even incontinencey in their old age.
That another thing too: It’s becoming hard to find a vet who will not try and force vaccinations on ya! Even here in the country. Some will actually turn away bidness just because you refuse vaccinations.
Some try and trick you: “The state requires rabies vaccinations”. True…but there is an opt-out/waiver…which they know damn well….but conveniently neglect to tell you about…and most will even balk when you mention such!
One vet once told me “We will not even groom an unvaccinated animal; in case it biites us…”- Me:”So if I have you administer shots when I bring her in for the spaying, you’ll be willing to do the spaying then?” Vet: “Yes”.
Can you believe that?!!! This fool actually wanted me to believe that he might catch a disease from a bite or scratch…but that if he administered a shot, from that very second, on, such a risk would no longer be present?!!!!
They’ve really gotten as bad as regular doctors. Same M.O. too- administer steroids and antibiotics for everything.
It’s hilarious really- these fools who almost unanimously believe in “evolution”, somehow believe that it is not possible for a pussy cat or puppy dog to live a healthy life without the administering of many drugs (When the animal is not even sick) and the spending of much money….
The core vaccines, once administered, have been proven to provide lifetime immunity. Vets are killing people’s animals by over-vaccinating. Just like human doctors, vets are also in Big Pharma’s pocket. I’ve witnessed it many, many times. Thankfully, people that raise animals professionally can still administer the shots – no need to visit a vet. I also mix liquid Ivermectin with maple syrup during the mosquito months for heartworm prevention. By the way, did you know fleas can become immune to flea & tick medication? My method for flea prevention is spraying the yard. If you do get fleas, you can always use essential oils like peppermint oil. And that won’t destroy their skin like flea medication does.
Hand, no vaccine has ever been proven to provide immunity for any duration for anything. People vaccinated for measles still get ’em; cows vaccinated for black leg still get it…..
Back during the polio epidemic, the Phillipines had a lower incidence of Polio than we did here in ‘murca. Once they started administering the vaccine…their rate of polio went up to match ours!
It depends on what’s in the vaccine and how much is given in regards to its effectiveness and harmfulness. The amount of millennial children having neurological disorders is astounding. Something is obviously wrong. Sadly, this a very protected big business, so I highly doubt these companies will ever come clean. Just think of the lawsuits if they did. For them, it’s just better to keep quiet and keep the militant pro-vaccine propaganda rolling. A family did win over a million in a vaccine injury case many years ago.
No, Handler. There is NO scientific proof that ANY vaccine creates any immunity. There’s some anecdotal stuff; but honest scientists admit that there is no real evidence or even understanding of the mechanisms of the so-called immunity supposedly created by vaccines.
What they tell you about how vaccines supposedly work is just “theory”. All these years and they still can’t prove that it works or how or why it does- it’s just theory that you’re supposed to trust and accept. Brought to you by people who think it’s a good idea to inject mercury and thimerasol, and formaldahyde, etc. into your bloodstream- and even if you get rid of those things, why would you accept the “science” of the people who thought that you having those things mainlined was a good idea???
If injecting that crap into your bloodstream creates immunity, then so would being exposed to actual virus/disease/pathogen.
My neighbor vaccinated his cows for black leg. Some of his cows died from black leg. I didn’t vaccinate mine for anything…no black leg on my side of the fence….
Remember the swine flu back in the 70’s (I was a kid- I was force-vaccinated for that. Last vaccination I’ve ever had)- Of the people who died from the swine flu….every fatal case was in a person who had been vaccinated for it. No UNvaccinated person died from the swine flu.
Vaccines are large part of why cancer is SO common today. I’ve heard and read of many old doctors say that they’ve never seen a case of cancer in an unvaccinated person.
People don’t make the connection because the effects can sometimes not be seen for decades….
Vaccines are also why SO many kids today have allergies and asthma…the more vaccines they give ’em, the more common those things become.
You should know that if the state is pushing it and mandating it for “saaaaaaaaafety”, and in conjunction with big pharma, no less, it CAN’T be good.
Haven’t had a “tetanus shot” since I was about 8, yet in the intervening 48 years, I’ve cut myself hundreds if not thousands of times; been bitten by a few dogs, yada, yada…. Used to get cuts on my hands weekly when my hands were covered in grease and gunk when I used to rebuild engines (I never wear gloves)….never even so much as an infection (Or am I “immune” to every infection and gangrene and everything else from some monkey puss they injected in me 48 years ago? LOL!)
Hi Handler,
Anecdotally, at least, there is clearly something wrong. Most reading this will likely agree, if they are in my age group (Gen X) or older. Most kids I knew growing up did not have allergies much less several and severe and potentially fatal ones. Things such as autism were essentially unknown.
Maybe it is neurasthenic – an offshoot of the saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaafety obessession. I dunno. But it is definitely odd.
Hi Brent,
This is a point that nobody ever talks about – how in those (evil capitalist) places say out in Asia where the government doesnt interfere with medical care, how cheap it actually is, despite having a shortage of doctors. Most people can afford it, and for cash. Yes there are some who cant even afford that, but because these places people still take care of each other, people just chip in and make sure things happen when required.
To your point Eric, I remember when I was out in Asia a visit to doctor costed a bit more than a visit to the vet for my moms cat !! Now when I travel to Asia with my kids, whenever they fall sick, the doctors visit is so cheap it doesnt even reach the excess on my travel insurance!!!
Once, when I fell quite ill out there, called Amex to find me a doctor who prescribed a a chest x ray, then gave some medicine and this was at the best hospital in the country, all on western standards. Was still so cheap that it actually cost less than the toll and parking to come see my doctor once I got back to London…..
If people in the west realise how much they are being ripped off by the government, i suspect there will be heads on spikes before we know it….
We’re always just one election / SCOTUS decision / other form of coup d’etat away from having the generally low security open air prison that is the entire U.S. becoming decidedly more prison-y.
I bear my fellow citizens, regardless of political party affiliation, no ill will — the real enemy is and always has been the government and its enforcers, their divide and conquer strategy to pit Team Red versus Team Blue notwithstanding — but said citizens can do some gotdamn dangerous and retarded stuff when they step into a voting booth. People who in all other aspects of their life seem intelligent and prudent and rational seem to lose their f’n minds when it comes to politics.
“citizens can do some gotdamn dangerous and retarded stuff when they step into a voting booth. ”
Wait a minute, Jim. You don’t actually think that somebody counts the votes and the one with the most votes wins, do you? 😉
We need to enact “reasonable restrictions” on voting, like background checks and requiring a training class before being allowed to vote.
Maybe some reasonable restrictions on the vote counting and reporting, which might include armed citizen poll watchers who can shoot down any asshole they catch trying to falsify anything. Just shoot the fuckers down like dirty dogs.
Another practice that might have a beneficial effect would be mobs of citizens busting into sessions of congress, or city council, and dragging out a few politicians at random and hanging their asses from lamp posts, just as an object lesson.
It might take a constitutional amendment, but what is really needed is articles of enforcement that provide prison sentences and/or hanging for violation of the constitution. It’s supposed to be the supreme law of the land, ain’t it? It ain’t much of a law if there’s no penalty for violating the provisions.
I have a few more good ideas, but I’m too tired to write any more right now.
Entire election system could be fraudproofed: just put serial numbers on every ballot so everyone can VERIFY that their votes were counted… and publish all the ballots on a website so anyone can download the ballot database and open it in a spreadsheet and the spreadsheet will count the totals. Instead of trying to prevent fraud on the frontend, simply verify the accuracy on the backend. This should be the top priority of all congrespersons and the president, but NOONE EVER MENTIONS IT, except for the occasional authentic media outlet covering the latest of zillions of election fraud cases across the usa.
Hi Beam,
It’d be a start… Even better, though, would be to end the practice of using a ballot box as the means for violating other people’s rights; to take their property and assault their liberty. What I mean is, certain things – most things – should never be up for a vote.
Your property – all of it – either is your property or it isn’t. If others may vote to deprive you of any portion of it, then it no longer is your property; it is just something you’re allowed to hold onto for as long as others decide not to just take it from you.
Your life is either yours or it’s not. If it is yours, others may never dictate to you what you may do with it or how you may live it (so long as how you live and what you do harms no one else). If you wish to “do drugs” – or not – that is up to you and no one else has any say in the matter. If you want to work for someone for whatever wage you agree to accept – or someone else agrees to work for you – that is between the two of you and no one else’s business.
Voting is mostly just a kind of magic trick used to make palatable acts which in an straightforward, person-to-person context would be regarded by most decent people as obscene.
And really, what difference doea an accurate ballot count make, anyway, when the choice is always between Hitler or Stalin- “the lesser evil”?
Even if one believes that conveying special powers, rights, and privileges to certain men which somehow gives them the moral right to control the lives of others and their property, were legit and desirable, ensuring that the electoral process is “honest” is about as useful as ensuring that your choice as to who you want your executioner to be, will be adhered to.
Better if the fraud and dishonesty of elections is apparent- that way, maybe more people will stop participating in and advocating governance, and take back more control over their own lives and affairs instead of worrying about how to control and rob others through the ballot box.
Kind of ironic, isn’t it- how a scheme which promotes robbery, oppression, extortion, loss of liberty, etc. should also be dishonest when it comes to the wishes of those who think that they are going to control such a system and harness it for their own benefit through the mere act of “voting”!
Hello tallpine, there is no good reason to preserve statism. You seem to be confident that your side (whatever side that is)would win if your proposals were enacted, but I see no reason for such confidence. The ‘free shit army’, big corporations, unions, most if not all Chambers of Commerce, federal and state employees, and the banksters would all oppose such a proposal and vote to water it down in the event such a proposal were enacted. The religious right probably would likewise be in opposition to anything which threatens to end U.S. groveling to Israels buttocks, or might decrease the chance of Armageddon taking place soon. They seem to think that God needs their help starting it.
Then we get into other questions. Define what “reasonable restrictions” should be considered that the entrenched socialist republicans and democrats would support. Who would be trusted to enforce such a ruling? The corrupt government?
Hi Brian,
In re your comment about escaping statists: I am fleshing out a book plot that will develop the theme. It is a problem I have been thinking about for 20 years, at least. It is probably the most daunting practical as well as philosophical problem facing liberty-minded people. Stay tuned!
Brian, you seem to be an ass-hole who can’t even appreciate a twist on gun control arguments.
Hi Anonymous,
Please refrain from personal attacks; calling people names is not an argument. If you have a disagreement with Brian, then make your case. Calling him or anyone else an “asshole” doesn’t accomplish anything except degrade the level of discussion here.
Why doesn’t this “anonymous” show his face when his IP address goes out on every bit of info he sends out over the internet? What is he hiding from? The government of the USSA has every detail of his life, so what’s up with this “anonymous” trend?
Probably just doesn’t notice that Turdpress is keeping some of us perpetually logged out, and that we need to re-enter our name on every post- I believe if one leaves the fields blank, it just defaults to anonymous.
I would tend to agree with you Nunzio, but I think in this case the absence of a username is intentional. Even if tallpine was posting a sarcastic twist on gun control arguments; such strong language as he used in making his reply is uncalled for. He could have called me gullible, or accused me of being unable to spot humor instead.
I admit that I do not always spot humor, and I am far from being the only one like that, but this is because I tend to think that posted replies are serious unless they are followed up with something like /sarc.
I think he responded like that because “anonymous” is a member of one of the groups I included in my post, and _what_ I said pissed him off. Good!!!!
Brian, I’m always on the lookout for humor and can usually spot it. I agree with you that anony was most likely not joking.
Thanks Ed, but anony was saying that tallpine’s post which I replied to was intended as a joke, and that I was an asshole for not seeing that. I am happy that I pissed him off.
OK, I kind of lost the thread. I thought you meant that anon was trying to pass off calling you an asshole as a joke.
I know I’m an asshole. I work hard at it, too. When someone calls me an asshole, I just appreciate them noticing. 😉
Hi Ed,
One of my favorite assholes of history was Aaron Burr – who was considered an asshole because he was honest about it. Unlike, say, Hamilton.
I see myself as more of a dick… 😀
Meh, I’d never let myself get upset over what some anonymous stranger says on the interwebz.
People should keep in mind though, that since we can’t hear tone of voice or inflection when we read- it is quite hard to pick up on things like sarcasm- so they should make sure, if they’re going to use it, that they do so in such a way that all will “get”.
Hey, 10 of Anonymous’s excoriating posts wouldn’t be worth one of Ed’s “Ringmeat Mongoloid dickweed”s!
Stop worrying and learn to love the coming Forbidden Forest. The currency has no value anyway, as do our lives. It is better to be the low hanging fruit when the bolsheviks come to march you off. None of that lingering starvation and sadistic torture, just a swift bullet to the back of your head that your next of kin will be billed for.
Take a page from the last American President: be in as much debt as possible. They leave you alone when you have nothing they can take and will fall all over themselves to “help” you.
“And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family?…”
Wasn’t the Individual Mandate repealed this past year and now is set to expire by Jan 1, 2019 ? https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/4/13/17226566/obamacare-penalty-2018-individual-mandate-still-in-effect
Hi Zaph,
So they say – but it still applies to 2017 and 2018… so, the worrisome thing is this: Two “shared responsibility” fines of $695 equals $1,390. Now add interest to that – and possibly, penalties. It could amount to thousands of dollars…
Eric,
You are going to get another notice in a week or two. It’s going to be for $697.67 (that’s what happened to me last year, tax year 2016) Then a month after that you’ll get a notice for $700.35. I just received the letter for this year, $926.00.
Hi Adam,
Have you been ignoring these or responding? My accountant says to just ignore them. That there is nothing they can do beyond sending letters claiming you “owe” – that and deduct what you “owe” from any refunds due.
But I do worry that the thugs are going to come after us at some point – such as when “the law” is changed (ex post facto not mattering an iota more than 4th and 5th Amendment’s protections and prohibitions).
One of the many disgusting things about the “Affordable” Care Act is that it punishes self-employed people who can’t afford insurance. If this business was benevolent – about making sure we are all “covered” – then how is that people like us (well, me) who literally cannot afford to spend $400 a month on got-damned insurance are then forced to throw away large sums of money in fines?
I mean, if they just want to make sure we have “care” and all.
Eric,
I didn’t respond to the letters, like I said, you’re going to get two more notices, then after that you won’t see anything, well…, ’till next year when you don’t fulfill your 2018 “shared responsibility”. I’m in the same boat, self-employed, can’t afford it. I try to stay healthy, exercise, eat well. I went to see a doctor a couple of years ago, just because everyone said I should get a check-up (I’m over 55). I paid cash, like $500, full blood work, some supplements. I’m healthy! Why do I need insurance. Like you said, I too would purchase a high deductible, just in case type policy if I could.
Should have lied from the git-go my friend. Wifey and I did it for three years.
Hi Brazos,
I was tempted… but my understanding is they can go after you for perjury in that event…
They can go after a ham sandwich for whatever its worth. People must make a stand, one individual at a time. Like jury nullification, you can try to exercise Right of Conscience, yet the satanic priest in the black robe may still hold you in contempt of their corrupt court.
Hi Pyra,
I won’t budge on this one. What the hell… I’m single, no kids. Not responsible for anyone. I have my backpack ready. Honestly, I am close to not caring anymore – and it’s freeing.
You’re right, eric. as Levon Helm wrote; “You give your life to live your life”.
I think another appropriate quote would be “if you ain’t got nothing, you got nothing to lose”, and it may come to that if these rat bastards keep pushing us into a corner. Maybe the day the EBT cards stop working or some other trigger; hope I live to see it.
Perjury is a felony. You don’t want to risk the federal response. Believe me. Eric is right.
Unless one is a pig. Seems to be absolutely no penalty to them for perjury…or murder…or any other crime….