Posted: August 20, 2024 by chrisharper in Uncategorized
By Christopher Harper
I just joined a growing group of millions in the United States who owe more than $200 billion in medical debt.
Last month, I underwent emergency surgery, which cost nearly $200,000. My cut is somewhere between $6,000 and $11,000. That’s likely to grow as the bills roll in.
Obama care didn’t help me a lick. Neither do the Democrats’ plans to “reduce” costs for drugs. In fact, the medications used during and after the surgery ran about $2,500. The new series of drugs cost another $2,000.
But at what cost? The hospital room alone ran more than $20,000!
Although I live mainly on Social Security, I do not qualify for any of the state and federal “plans” to pay for some of the costs of the surgery. I am also not eligible for health services, such as home support, which my wife and daughter provide.
Also, I don’t qualify for subsidized aftercare, such as a long-term facility, if that becomes necessary. Fortunately, I took out a specific insurance policy for such possibilities.
One in seven people with outstanding medical debt has faced lawsuits to recover the money, according to the Kaiser Foundation, which has no affiliation with Kaiser Permanente.
My case is typical. The Democrats propose a plan to give money from the federal budget to those with debt—a giveaway for mostly seniors like forgiving college debt.
The plan is mostly smoke and mirrors, but, of course, the Democrats blame the GOP rather than the abomination that Obamacare created.
Any of the Democrats’ plans shouldn’t fool older Americans. You might get lower costs for some medications, but the big-ticket items will likely cost more.
Back in the days before Obama and in those halcyon years of the 20th century when someone stated something that was considered a “conspiracy theory” those who wished to debunk it simply broke out actual evidence that could clearly demonstrate that someone was talking nonsense.
It was the standard way of silencing people who were talking nonsense, you’d show the math, you’d display your work and thus easily show that the various worries and fears of impossible things were, in fact baseless and thus belonged in the category of “conspiracy theory”.
But over the last 10 years this has changed. Our friends on the left when confronted by questions they did not want to deal with have basically shouted “conspiracy theory” without bothering with the pesky business of disproving various claims, the accusation itself was enough.
Thus the reaction by the left to this story out of Georgia:
The Georgia State Election Board passed a rule Monday giving local election officials additional power to investigate ballot counts before certifying the results, a move critics say could inject chaos into the 2024 election and delay the state’s official vote count.
The “Rule for Reconciliation Prior to Certification” will allow for a hand recount of votes to ensure “the total number of ballots cast” does not exceed “the total number of persons who voted,” according to the language of the rule.
County election officials will now be allowed to investigate any possible discrepancies.
The NY Times describes this as a “right wing takeover” and the CNN story is full of, as Citizen Free Press calls it “Democrat Tears” but the bottom line is this.
If the cries of “stolen elections” are simply a “conspiracy theory” then a hand recount should be welcomed by our friends on the left as a simple way to verify what they already claim is the case.
Because you don’t need “massive turnout” to counteract verification if actual votes are there do you?
The Whitesox stand at a 30-95 record as of Monday Morning.
The 1962 Mets went 40-120 for .250 winning percentage.
With 162 games 40 wins would give the White Sox a winning percentage below .250 so they need 11 rather than 10 more wins to surpass the Mets and avoid being the worst team in MLB history since 1900.
Here is the remaining White Sox Schedule:
at SF Giants (3)
vs Detroit Tigers (4)
vs Texas Rangers (3)
vs NY Mets (3)
at Baltimore Orioles (3)
at Boston Redsox (3)
vs Cleveland Indians (I refuse to call them anything else) (3)
vs Oakland A’s (3)
at California Angels (3)
at San Diego Padres (3)
vs California Angels (3)
at Detroit Tigers (3)
In theory they could manage to get to 11 wins without winning or even splitting a single series. All they have to do is win a single game in each of those series and viola 12 wins and they avoid ignominy.
Alas the Redsox, Orioles, Indians, Mets Padres and even the Giants are all in division or wild card races and will have a real incentive to try to sweep the easiest remaining games on their schedules. If only half of those teams manage a sweep that means to avoid replacing the 1962 mets at the bottom of the barrel the White sox would have to
split their 4 game set with Detroit
win at least one of their remaining series
and not be swept by any non-playoff team
Can they do it? I have absolutely no idea but it will be fun to find out, unless you’re a White Sox fan.
It does however give one a reason for following the team.
If things go as bad as I suspect they will I’m the White sox front office I arrange for the surviving members of the 62 Mets to attend any game where the White Sox can clinch the worst record of all time and arrange for a ceremony where a member of the 62 Mets (Ed Kranepool?) gives them the fickle finger of fate award a-la Laugh-In if they manage to do so.
If you’re going to go down you might as well celebrate it.
I’ve been a conservative blogger for nearly two decades. And it’s just occurred to me that we’ve been advancing our cause the wrong way for many years.
Our side supports smaller government–but a strong and vigorous military and law enforcement apparatus–as well as lower taxes, fewer regulations, and enabling vigorous free speech. The leftists–call them liberals or progressives if you prefer–are on the opposite side of those issues.
So why aren’t we winning more?
Because the leftists, with a few exceptions such as Fox News and talk radio, has the media on their side.
Attacks on prominent Democrat politicians, such as Hillary Clinton, sometimes succeed. But Clinton, a thoroughly unlikable person with the charm of a rattlesnake, was easy prey. Not even the mainstream media trusted her.
Let’s move on to Joe Biden. Until cognitive decline became apparent in Biden to open-minded people–that was sometime around 2019–the progressive media juggernaut didn’t care much for the corrupt Delaware fabulist. But word trickled out that what was left of his mind was turning into Play-Doh. And trusted leftists such as Susan Rice and Anita Dunn were at his side to mold that putty into another Bernie Sanders, albeit someone less scary than the Vermont socialist.
And the leftist media, led by the New York Times and the Washington Post, went into prevent defense mode, first to assist Biden to outmaneuver Sanders and win the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020, then to run cover as Biden, using the COVID-19 hysteria as an excuse, as the cognitively declining Biden campaigned for the White House from the basement of his Delaware home.
And the media, Pravda-like, protected Biden after the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan–remember the embarrassingly wrong USA Today fact check?–as well as minimizing the effects of the supply chain crisis, inflation, recession, and of course Biden’s accelerating descent into senility.
As long as Play-Doh Brain Biden played along and didn’t appear too horrible in public, the media shielded him.
And then for a few weeks this summer, the media remembered they were journalists. With tens of millions of Americans watching–Biden’s cognitive decline was on full display during his disastrous debate in June with Donald Trump.
Biden was no use to the media mob anymore. So, they all but “granny dumped” him as they told their audience, finally, that Biden’s mind was goo. Then Brutus-like, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, and Barack Obama finished him off.
Of course, Harris, the vice president, is now the Democrat nominee. And with rare exceptions, such as Harris’ call for Soviet-style price controls, they’re back to protecting the head of their Democratic Party.
I’m being overly generous in this article but think of whoever is the Democratic president or its presidential nominee as Superman. And look at the media as the Dems’ secret power. Well, it is for low-information voters. They’re the ones who not only don’t know who their state representative is, they don’t even know there is a legislature in their state and the other 49. But these low-information voters reliably fall for the establishment media lies–even if encountering their lies is nothing more than seeing a Facebook headline on their smartphone.
Take away that secret power, the media, and that will be the end of the Democratic Party as a national political force.
I touched on this issue in my post here last week, Journalists should be forced to wear clown suits. Cancel your subscriptions to their publications. If you absolutely need to read an article from, let’s say, the Chicago Tribune or the Washington Post, for laughs perhaps, you can often find those same pieces on MSN or Yahoo for free.
And challenge the leftist media propagandists on social media. Break them while forcing their employers to go broke. They’re not earning an honest living. They’re propagandists–not journalists.
While breaking the media, you may gain friends and admirers.
Update (DTG) Instalanche thanks Glenn Hi folks, it’s been a bit, You can catch John here every Sunday, our regular Tuesday writer has been ill and our other Jon, Jon writes on Thursday and of course you can find me here daily.
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