Fall arrived around midnight. I had to shut several windows against the chill and find a pair of socks to wear for the first time since…March? The dogs have been extra-snuggly. Here’s Badger catching a little sun on a landing:
He looks jet black with white trim in the shade, but in the sun, his true brindle nature reveals itself.
Got any plans for the weekend? I may be going to a stone crab festival to gorge myself on crustacean claws. Fun fact about Florida Stone Crabs: if their claws are removed properly, the creature can regrow the lost limb on go on about its business.
Open thread!
PST
Winter arrived in Chicago yesterday morning, just in time to wreck Halloween, and we got a good, hard overnight freeze. There was scattered ice on the sidewalks this morning where snow had melted and refrozen. No fun when being pulled by a 75-pound dog with four paw drive.
mrmoshpotato
BADGER! ?????
mrmoshpotato
@PST:
Can confirm. Good times waiting for the bus at the end of October with ice underfoot.
ETA – hehe “four paw drive”
Tom Levenson
Stone crabs!
Covet.
Gin & Tonic
Cold and rainy in Munich as well.
Sure Lurkalot
Stone crab, yum. It’s a richy rich gift my family members and I have shipped to each other for special occasions. Worth every bit of mess created by eating them.
P.S. Doggy is adorable. Needs a nap.
Leto
Avalune and I do. Today meeting up with some friends for some good times and Mexican food, tomorrow double feature of the new Terminator movie, followed by Motherless Brooklyn, with Sunday being capped off by taking her to the knitting store and a food outing at our favorite grocery store. It’s a “come meet our local suppliers and eat some good food” shindig.
Also today is the first day of my retirement. I join Raven in idol hands ?
VeniceRiley
Got a thin 3/4 sleeve sweater out of the closet today. 1st day out of short sleeves since last winter.
Party tonight for a dear colleague leaving work. Scheduled hangover and moping for the weekend.
Central Planning
Socks? What did it get down to? 70?
Here in Rochester, I saw a few flakes hit my car today but they melted immediately since the air temp was 42.
delk
@PST: no fun walking with a cane to the L to get physical therapy for my new hip.
arrieve
@Leto: Welcome to retirement! I retired a year ago and thought I might do some consulting but have since decided I’m just done with that life, period. I had lunch with some former co-workers today and enjoyed hearing them bitch about my now former manager because it’s no longer my problem.
Big weather shift here as well. Yesterday was warm and muggy; woke up freezing.
And Badger! Yay!
Litlebritdifrnt
Going to the Estate Agents tomorrow to drop off our IDs and begin the formal process of getting into our new place. Two bed bungalow on Westgate in Morecambe. Hopefully everything will go smoothly and we can start moving our stuff in. This is the place.
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/property-74810665.html
rikyrah
Badger is so adorable :)
Those ears :)
Avalune
I broke out my fingerless mitts and my newly finished Nightshift today because dog walkies was a bit chilly!
PST
@delk: You don’t live in 5C, do you, delk? My neighbor just got one of those.
Avalune
@Litlebritdifrnt: If you pay anyone to move anything watch your stuff! Our Brit movers stole two of my camera lenses. ><
I'm sure that's not localized to Britain or anything – I'm just still a bit salty. Lol! Hope everything goes smoothly.
HumboldtBlue
My 8-year-old friend Opal Jane and I were staring at the sky on one of the blackout nights when she turned and asked me, “Uncle HB, how do stars die?”
I hesitated and then responded, “usually by overdose.”
mrmoshpotato
@Leto:
Congrats, and good luck on that gold statue of Jeebus.
delk
@PST: 2W. ?
Betty Cracker
@Litlebritdifrnt: Very cute!
@HumboldtBlue: LOL! You must be the “cool” uncle. (Or as we call them here, “druncles.”)
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
Going to get a new phone – a task I hate and carry out as seldom as possible, but the old iPhone 5 is clearly at its last gasp.
I’ve been having a really hard time motivating myself to get out of my house, even as far as the backyard, for the last few weekends, but then by Sunday evening I’m consumed with anxiety and claustrophobia and regret for missed opportunities. I guess I need to make specific plans that require me to cross the property line and that don’t involve just the dreaded Apple Store.
Steeplejack
@Betty Cracker:
Same here in NoVA. The weather has been pretty mild—it was 75° and muggy late yesterday afternoon—but we had thunderstorms last night, the temperature crashed overnight, and it’s only 54° now. Sunny and clear, but the cold weather has arrived. Highs in the 50s for the next 10 days, heading toward the 40s.
I have no plans for the weekend. The Sighthound Hall mob went to Rehoboth Beach (where it’s equally cold), so I have no social obligations. I might try baking some pumpkin bread. I’m a banana bread guy, and I hate the “pumpkin-flavored everything” mania at this time of year, but I saw a recipe that looked good, or at least got me thinking that there must be a good recipe somewhere. ATK/Cook’s Illustrated has a couple that look promising.
trollhattan
Let’s see, bracing for the goddamn time change, cleaning up the considerable mess from the last two windstorms, breathing wildfire smoke, soccer Saturday, what am I forgetting…?
mrmoshpotato
@PST: Miss.
@delk: Hit.
rikyrah
Trump lures senators on impeachment with cold cash: Report
As the impeachment inquiry kicks into high gear, the president is essentially giving a cash reward to senators who have his back.
donnah
I’m lovin’ that sunbaby Bdger.
I leave next week to teach a rug hooking workshop in Nebraska, so this weekend is all devoted to prepping for that. I’ve drawn up my next rug design and will start that after I return. It’s a tribute piece for one of my childhood heroines, Helen Keller. I’ll be hooking it on a black to white scale with elements that will look hand-tinted with soft colors. Can’t wait to get started.
And the cooler weather is always perfect for rug hooking. Lots of wool!
HumboldtBlue
@Betty Cracker:
Indeed I am the “very cool uncle” and always strived to be and it’s kept me busy. I’m an official uncle 11 times over, a grand uncle five times over and a friends uncle three times over.
I arrive with gifts and candy and until my nephews hit their late teens and early 20s, was the wrestling/rough-housing uncle as well.
Mary G
It’s 69 degrees here and I have on a flannel nightgown. Yes, I’m becoming my mother. When I moved in with her she was always cold and I was going through menopause, so the thermostat was the scene of some epic battles. She would be 96 today if she wasn’t dead.
Jay
LuciaMia
@Steeplejack: Yup, woke up in the wee hours chilled and hunting for another blanket. Seemed to take forever to warm up.
That is a wise Badger.
Steeplejack
@Litlebritdifrnt:
Looks nice. Is this close to where you are now, or is it a big geographical move as well?
Also, I always want to ask you: do you ever hear anything about the ogre-ish lawyer you used to work for in the States?
Mary G
@Leto: Congratulations! Your weekend sounds fun.
Salty Sam
Hah! Here I am, just across the state from you (Merritt Island), and we gorged on stone crab claws and shrimp last night. And my wife asked “Why is it just claws? where’s the rest of the crab”, and I amazed her with the facts of crab claw regeneration.
mrmoshpotato
@trollhattan:
Well why don’t you spend an extra hour bitching and moaning about it? ?
Redshift
I have way too many plans for the weekend. I need to make some calls to get more volunteers for Election Day. (I hate making phone calls!) I need to put in at least one canvassing shift. The local planetarium when I volunteer is having our last weekend event before it closes for a year while they renovate the neighboring building. We have hockey tickets for tonight, and there’s the Nats World Series victory parade tomorrow.
And I’m starting out already exhausted from performing in my friend’s Halloween haunted house last night!
Jay
Jay
LuciaMia
Pleeeease tell me Trump is gonna go ahead with his ‘Fireside Chat’ stunt. I can just see him sitting in a wing chair by a roaring fire, like Alistair Cooke introducing Masterpiece Theater. He’ll think he’s emulating FDR, forgetting it was a radio broadcast.
germy
One stone crab could feed a family for a lifetime!
Nelle
The town is overrun with politicians…Des Moines has a big fundraising dinner tonight. I’m going to a fundraiser for my rep, Cynthia Axne, and Katie Porter of CA tomorrow.. right now, my husband and I each have a sleeping granddaughter on our laps. He’s got the 8 month old. I have the two year old. Such synchronicity is rare and we’re content.
Virginia
Stone crab. All the yum. Just got back from Miami and Key West. Gorged ourownselves on those lovelies our last night in KW.
Mary G
I put in a tweet about this in the last thread calling the administration scum. Here is another one:
Basically, the administration is has said it’s OK to discriminate against LGBT or anybody else your religion hates.
trollhattan
@mrmoshpotato:
I will, believe you me!
Cycling home through downtown starting Monday becomes dramatically suboptimal. I’d rather get up in the dark.
Raven Onthill
Not many plans. My spouse is going to be morning her dead, many of them, in the past year. Me, who knows? Always lots of things to do around the house.
Meantime:
Litlebritdifrnt
@Avalune: No worries, my BIL is going to hire a van and we are going to move ourselves.
trollhattan
@LuciaMia:
“Sniffy McSniffpants Charms America” can’t begin soon enough. Gather the children and tell them Halloween is extended for three months this year.
Mary G
@Mary G: Here is a candidate’s tweet that lists all the agencies that will be allowed to exclude LGBT:
Soprano2
I had frost on my car this morning. If only all I had to think about was grabbing a pair of socks!
Ohio Mom
@Leto: Congrats! What a marvelous milestone!
RAVEN
Got any plans for the weekend?
right
NotMax
101 years on, recognizing Malbone.
mrmoshpotato
@trollhattan:
True.
RAVEN
I got my bride a new macbook air and, of course, I don’t have a Thunderbolt cable to transfer her data. I’m seeting it up via wirelss but that will take forever!
mrmoshpotato
@trollhattan: “God blesshh the USSR! I live you Daddy Vladdy!”
Litlebritdifrnt
@Steeplejack: It is in the next town over, Morecambe. About 15-20 minutes away depending on traffic. Good news close to the beach, bad news not as close to Sis for a night out in town :) However a taxi shouldn’t be too costly to get us to and fro, so going out and getting blathered two or three times a month isn’t unaffordable. Other good news DHs has his first subbing job on Monday. Bad news it is in Kirkby Lonsdale, gonna have to get up early on Monday morning to drive him there.
NotMax
“Same thing we do every weekend, Pinky. Try to take over the world!”
:)
Brachiator
A little Open Thread tidbit.
I was having dinner Tuesday evening at a local Chinese restaurant when 8 or so Bernie supporters came in. Maybe there was some recent nearby event. Not sure. But some of them were wearing Bernie shirts and one was carrying a sign, and they had other campaign looking stuff. They were not old enough to have ever been real hippies, but they had a crunchy granola vibe, 50 plus year old guys with gray ponytails, etc. A diverse group, men, women, Asians, Hispanics. One lady spent a lot of time with a waiter trying to identify vegan friendly dishes she could eat.
The main thing is that they seemed very energized and happy, and had a lot of positive and cheery things to say about their guy. I’ve overheard conversations of Trump supporters, and inevitably something sullen, mean and nasty gets said. About the only thing that rankled me was a bit of Hillary bashing. Someone asked if she might enter the race. Someone asked if she might run as an independent, and a person piped in “You mean, as a Republican.” I half thought about asking them a couple of questions, but figured that everyone, including me, just deserved a quiet night and a good meal.
Anyway, the main thing is that they otherwise were giving off a happy vibe, and really seem to see their guy as The Solution.
Sanders is not and will never be my preferred candidate, but I have no problem acknowledging the positive energy these folks were giving off.
Immanentize
@donnah:
I am, as odd as it might seem, related to Helen Keller through my Mom’s father
ETA She was a Wobbly
NotMax
@Litlebritdifrnt
Is there something amiss with the floor plan as shown? Dimensions for the living room are given as 14 feet long and 6 feet wide.
rikyrah
@Leto:
CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!
?BillinGlendaleCA
Badger looks like he just found out Trump is moving to Floriduh.
Martin
@Mary G:
SFAW
@rikyrah:
Article II, Section 4:
“The President, Vice President and all civil officers of the United States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.”
Immanentize
@Mary G:
I guess the Justices leaked their vote count
Litlebritdifrnt
@NotMax: I don’t know where that came from, the living room is a really good size and will be more than enough room for our furniture. The entire place has just been completely refurbished, brand new everything.
Jager
We’re in the 2nd month of our new house. We sold the old house almost the minute it went on the market and spent 6 weeks in God Damned Extended Stay America while we continued our house hunting. The new place is great, we dropped from 2500 sq feet to 1600, 25 years old with a new kitchen and remodeled bathrooms and new hardwood floors. The HOA fee is 150 a month but includes cable and high-speed internet plus all kinds of premium channels, we were paying 130 a month at our old place for the same thing. We’ve got walking trails, free doggie poop bags, a pool, and a nice gym. The neighbors have lived here a long time, the 86 year old widow from across the street brought over a plate of cookies and said, “It’s so nice to have young people in the neighborhood”. The old retired aircraft engineer down the street, smokes weed for his arthritis, enough that I can catch a buzz when I walk Anze the Dog. Old Randy has a superb 41 Ford Tudor sedan in his garage, it’s street rodded just enough to be usable in the modern world, went to a Cars and Coffee event with him a couple of weeks ago, fun. Spent the weekend with my grandkids camping at Pinnacles National Park, had a great time. We’ve ducked the SoCal fires so far, so my retired life is good, my Executive Wife treats me like I’m 13 but that’s to be expected.
Phylllis
@Litlebritdifrnt: Which quirky local crime solver comes with it?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@LuciaMia:
Sounds more like Jimmy Carter and the “Malaise Speech”.
Leto
Thanks everyone for the well wishes! It was 22 hard years in the making, with the last year being especially trying, but I/we made it! While I would love to just sit around, eating bon-bons, the plan is to go back to school: I will be pursuing a woodworking degree. It combines my artistic desires with my need to actually make things with my hands. That’s part of what I loved about my military job, I was able to see tangible results at the end of the day. It’s also why I hated being management!
Also while I know that it’ll probably involve a lot of cabinetry building (it pays the bills), I really want to design legacy/heirloom furniture that people build their life stories around: tables/chairs that are used for gaming and family meals, chests that are used to store blankets/jewelry, beds that are used for sleeping… I know the arts are always a risky career path (I come from a family of arts related businesses), but I did 22 years of public sector work (results are still up in the air) and I’d like to do something a bit more soothing for my soul. It also might have a better legacy.
Mary G
Awww moment:
mrmoshpotato
@NotMax: “I think so, Brain, but if we covered the world in salad dressing wouldn’t the asparagus feel left out?”
Immanentize
@Leto:
Leto, that sounds like a great plan and given your last year, a little bon bon eating is also in order.
trollhattan
@Jager:
You successfully describe Hell On Earth for me, here. I imagine what it must be like for the Paradise, CA survivors still doing this after a full year.
Congrats on the new place, sounds great!
catclub
@Mary G:
So, non-Catholics not eligible at Catholic services? Divorced, remarried Catholics no good?
Not even getting into Jewish adoptive parents at ‘Christian’ service providers. How about the Jewish services that turn down Christians?
That will go over well. Not to mention religions that forbid adoption by other races. (if they don’t have that rule yet, they can still make it up)
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Leto: Best of luck with your new endeavors.
Mnemosyne
As is typical for So Cal, it’s chilly at night while still being very warm during the day. Charlotte insisted on snuggling under the covers with me this morning and was very disgruntled when I got up to get ready for work. Time to clear space on the counter for our tiny bathroom heater!
Jager
@trollhattan:
I’m certain ESA contracts for the worst pillows in the world, that was the consensus of my fellow long-termers. Met some interesting folks at ESA from all walks of life, including a construction foreman who was carrying on a blazing affair with one of the desk clerks.
Sister Golden Bear
In today’s edition of watching my rights being taken away in real time:
https://www.joemygod.com/2019/11/hhs-seeks-to-drop-lgbt-protections-in-all-programs/
Part of their plan to eradicate us from public life — and if LGBT people die from lack of services, well that’s a bonus.
Patricia Kayden
@rikyrah: How much are souls going for nowadays?
Saw Harriet today. Absolutely loved it.
trollhattan
@Jager:
Heh. “When in Rome (or Bakersfield).”
JPL
@Leto: Congrats!
JPL
@Mary G: So rather than put them with loving families, they’ll let them waste away. f..kem
rikyrah
@Leto:
will you be selling stuff on Etsy?
Mnemosyne
@catclub:
Hell, a lot of the “Christian” adoption services would turn down Catholics for being heretics and apostates. I can see a whole lot of ways for this to get very ugly.
rikyrah
The higher percentage of Black middle class folks work in public sector/union jobs…those medical benefits have been negotiated well. And, this is throughout the country. And, those folks are supposed to be willing to give up their medical for the ponies and unicorns of Medicare 4 All.
I don’t live in the South, but, I know that a lot of Black folks are employed through healthcare or healthcare related fields. A lot of them are not college-educated, but, this is the best entry -level job that they can get that will give them a decent wage, coupled with the low cost of living in the South, and the ability to move forward.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Mnemosyne: Not to mention the kids these days are overwhelmingly nons. Naturally the True Christians will double down on the douchbaggyness until those kids feel Christ’s love.
Jager
@trollhattan:
Then there was the alcoholic who was drinking up his share of the house when he divorced his wife, the guy had 4 DUIs. Ventura County kicks drunk driver’s asses, he spent a year in jail for the last one. My wife and I came back from a late dinner one night and found him passed out in the middle of the parking lot. We got him up, walked him into the lobby and the night clerk said, “Jesus, not again.”
RAVEN
@trollhattan: My friends from Paradise were lucky (to live) and were fully insured so they got an RV and are now rebuilding.
trollhattan
@RAVEN:
I can’t imagine. The one guy I know who escaped got his insurance money and is never going back (no interest in living in a ghost town).
Have your friends said whether officials have figured out resolving the water contamination issues?
VFX Lurker
@Brachiator:
It’s only positive within the group. Any perceived outsiders (ex: Hillary, Hillary voters, those not voting for Dear Leader) are ostracized, demonized and destroyed.
I learned this lesson the hard way.
Jay
A huge number of the CA bush fire teams are prisoner/volenteers.
They get $1 a day pay plus $3 an hour on the fire line.
After serving their sentences, most are unable to become firefighters, due to their criminal records.
https://www.google.ca/amp/s/www.commondreams.org/news/2019/10/30/modern-day-slavery-prisoner-firefighters-risking-their-lives-california-battling%3famp
Dan B
@Mary G: Taking the Golden Rule out of Gubmint.
No opiod programs for LGBT yoots!
No sex ed for nobody!
No loving pervert couples adopting and caring for orphans!
So much winning!!
Mnemosyne
@rikyrah:
If we lived in a rational country, universal healthcare would create a bunch of state and federal jobs at the clerk level to help people get signed up, new clinics in locations that didn’t have them, billing, etc.
Sadly, we live in an effed-up country where Republicans have convinced the MSM that federal contractors are cheaper than federal employees, so any attempt to set up an M4A system that way would bring loud screeches about “government waste!” ?
Dorothy A. Winsor
Jager
@RAVEN:
My retired cousin and his wife from San Jose had a nice retirement cabin not far from Paradise, they sold it after the fire and moved to Chico.
Aleta
Coincidentally, a couple of days ago while looking for an old post about tomatoes I accidentally hit upon this page: This is Badger McMurtry
Cutie pie from the get go.
Power just came back on. Our internet and two hot spots were out too. Don’t know why the hot spots would go down but not the cell phones. Conserving power at the towers? We’re having the wildest tree-twisting wind, all night and day so far, that I can remember during fall. Strong and constant gusting from all directions so the trees are whipping. Forty miles down river from here, my niece’s roof blew partway off her sturdy two-story house.
Here, a neighbor’s huge old cedar tree went down right across from our front door. Underneath its branches near the trunk was cat Charlie’s power peeing spot, and oddly enough we’d just buried him yesterday across from it. (It’s been months but it took us that long to find someone to dig the hole.) Losing him still hurts so much we can barely speak of it.
Ella in New Mexico
@rikyrah: These are the exact same types of arguments R’s used about Obama care and guess what? They proved to not be true.
I work in healthcare, I can assure you these folks will still have good jobs and good insurance if our country moves towards a single payer system. We’re always going to depend on those support staff and professionals to make it work efficiently. I’m not at all certain those 2 million job “losses” won’t actually just be a restructuring of how the work gets done and by who.
Right now there are so many different rules and processes to deal with different insurers that if I want to open my own practice, I’d be forced to hire at least 4-5 clerical/admin type staffers just to pay the billl. instead, with a single payer system and a centralized claim/billing structure in place, I would maybe need two or three office-type staff, and instead I can hire people who do billable work to provide actual care services to my patients. Many of those other three clerical folks could actually get easy retraining and fill those care-provider tasks, eg. MA’s, health “promotoras’, case managers,
etc.
Now apply that idea to a hospital, where right now, the overhead and administrative costs are so outrageous they don’t pay their patient care front liners competitive wages, keep RN-patient ratios and MD-patient caseloads dangerously high, don’t hire enough housekeepers or CNA’s or PT’s so your grandma with the broken hip doesn’t get turned and ends up with a bedsore. And yet continue to suck every bit of profit from the cost savings of Obamacare right up to the top of the food chain.
I think the country can find a way to move towards single payer at pace that doesn’t shove 2 million people out of their jobs overnight. If we shave off unneeded positions by efficiency and attrition, and address it with re-training, we likely won’t feel it at all.
R-Jud
Today is my 40th birthday. The Child and I went bowling and had milkshakes. I am so behind on everything since I got back from Texas it’s unreal.
But there’s always time for milkshakes.
Mary G
@Sister Golden Bear: @Dan B: Sister is the front line, then Dan B., then women. We gotta get these people out in a year and two days. They’d like to go back to the Middle Ages. A few rich people, everyone else can die or not, whatevs.
trollhattan
@Ella in New Mexico:
One dynamic I’d love to shed now and forever is the mission of insurance companies to deny coverage as much and as often as possible. We want to think of them as “our friends” there for us anytime we need help and yet, so often when we accept that help, there’s the insurance telling you this and that “we’ll only cover so much” and the other thing “out of network, so your responsibility.”
Nobody should have to pay for a service that is supplied by an adversary.
Jay
Fair Economist
@Litlebritdifrnt: @Dorothy A. Winsor:It’s very reasonable for Beto to drop out at this point, but I find it very frustrating that plausible candidates like O’Rourke, Gillibrand, Inslee, and even Tim Ryan (don’t like his politics, but he’s plausible) drop out while jokes like Williamson and Yang are still in.
trollhattan
@R-Jud:
HBDTY! And on a Friday to boot. Doesn’t get any better than that.
Elizabelle
@Ella in New Mexico: Good comment.
So much of resistance to changing our shitshow of a healthcare system is fear-based, and I cannot believe we cannot come up with mitigation and actually better jobs in a healthcare system that better served more.
Ella in New Mexico
@trollhattan: I had no idea how hard they work and how much time they expend trying to deny or delay coverage until I sat with my clinical preceptor for four hours one morning while she reviewed insurance claim denials or needs for prior authorization for even simple, covered therapy like types of albuterol, insulins, or other medications.
Fuckers will change their prescription formularies mid-year and literally start declining refills for a patient who’s been on the same generic drug for 10 years. Then they’ll tell the provider they have to get a new “prior authorization” for the same dam medication.
It’s one thing if they want you to use a cheaper version of a relatively expensive brand name drug. But I saw asthmatic kids or insulin dependent diabetics get delays in life saving drugs simply because the company bounced back and forth between the only two GENERIC versions of it available.
They claim seeking cheaper drug prices helps them save money but a little research often reveals minimal savings. it’s all about bumping people off in hopes that maybe they won’t fight it.
Dan B
@Raven Onthill: Many of us have puzzled over the increase in pplarization and the rise of authoritarian or authoritarian leaning regimes. So Facebook has played a leading role in that on addition to Russia.
They will do everything to keep Dems out of power and hamstring any progressive movements. Get Zuck, and this creep, back in front of congress.
Elizabelle
Cheryl’s put up two new threads.
First is one on Ukraine; second is on Beto ending his presidential bid.
Sadly, neither includes a photo of Badger. You will have to stay here for that dear little face.
Elizabelle
@R-Jud: Writing award AND a birthday and milkshakes (and flights over and back across the pond), all in compressed time.
Happy birthday!!
Jay
@Ella in New Mexico:
Keep in mind that even in Single Payer Countries, there is still a large Private Insurance Industry. It makes it’s money through Private and Employer “top up/gold plate” additions to the basic health care provided through Single Payer.
Some of, but not all of the benifits provided are, better physio, dental, travel, councilling, health and welfare, queue jumping, medical tourism, ward upgrades, cosmetic surgury, etc.
In Canada, Medicare is a $242 billion dollar “market”, ( 2017).
In Canada, the Private Health Insurance industry is a $184 billion dollar “market”, ( 2016).
Dan B
@catclub: There will be discrimination spillover but the Christianists have been howling for the opportunity to destroy LGBT people for their sins. Apparently there a lot of gay and lesbian couples in the deep south so they will bear the brunt of the loathing.
I dread the coming years but have lived through horrible times. Self care is essential.
Ella in New Mexico
@Elizabelle:
I think any candidate I’d vote for would have to address how to prevent that fear-mongering from taking hold. Warren is one, among others I’d guess, that I’d expect to see put out a proposal directly subsidizing the re-training and support mechanisms that job losses involved with a transition to single payer would cause.
Dan B
@Sister Golden Bear: And this is the opening act.
Is Azar a member of Opus Dei? He might be surprised at the anti-Catholic discrimination.
Ella in New Mexico
@Jay: Although Warren’s plan is actually very good in terms of totality of coverage. But I agree, they’re probably not gonna go away, just maybe now they’ll have to actually work to get your business.
Another option would be give taxpayers the option of paying premiums for Medicare 4 All that give us the same up-graded services. it would have the added cost savings of the existing single payer infrastructure. Kind of like how we do Medicare Part B right now.
Aleta
@trollhattan: We sign contracts with them, we have to keep it paid up, but after a claim it’s up to them what they feel like paying. A network doctor charges $Yz for a treatment? “No, our company wants that treatment to cost only $Xz. Then we’ll pay a percentage of what we say it should cost. But first we’ll deny all responsibility to pay anything. Once or twice at least, and slowly.” Costing the dr’s office money for staff salary and the sick person great grief. How do they get away with this. It’s a contract! But ignoring it and jiggling it around as a normal business practice costs them nothing.
Mnemosyne
@Ella in New Mexico:
I have an in-lab sleep test from July 2019 showing that I have severe sleep apnea. My doctor still has to certify every three months that I need a CPAP or the DME company won’t send my supplies. ?
Dan B
@Mary G: Yes. Trans people are already being targeted. Black trans women especially. Our gay friends with kids are frightened. Several adopted special needs kids so the HHS rule change leaves them vulnerable.
I wish Azar and Stephen Miller and the rest would keep their sadism to the privacy of their own homes.
Cacti
@Ella in New Mexico:
You just defeated your original premise with the above. You acknowledged that by switching to an M4A system, you would be eliminating 1 to 3 clerical or administrative jobs from your own practice. Now multiply your example by every doctor’s office, hospital, clinic, etc. in the country.
Jay
@Cacti:
There will still be private insurance under a M4A system, so that 4th clerk will still be needed.
Funny thing is, in Canada, the Private Insurance Market employs 4x the number of “paper pusheds” as the Medicare System, despite being 2/3rds the size.
Ella in New Mexico
@Cacti:
No, I said I could switch to hiring direct care providers that are a billable expense and that it’s very likely those hypothetical other three would be able to retrain to those jobs, either at my practice or elsewhere or even continue to do the work at a larger organization that will definitely still need them. And that I also think that any transition to single payer would likely build in financing to support that kind of retraining or other support services for those who might become unemployed because of these changes.
Ella in New Mexico
@Mnemosyne: Exactly. It’s such bull-fucking shit and what sucks is they expect your care provider to spend literally HOURS away from actual care provision to play their little bullshit games.
All the way down the line, single payer could literally help healthcare providers spend more time with their patients. Even as a bedside RN, I don’t know how many wasted hours I’ve spent getting my documentation done in the computer then on some flow sheet and then in the medication Record proving I’ve done my work with my patient in multiple ways just so every insurer’s demands get covered and my hospital gets paid for it–not with my patient and actually making them less safe.
J R in WV
@Avalune:
I’m so glad you started commenting while Leto was in his coma / recovering from his motorcycle wreck! You are funnier than any TV show !! You enjoy retirement with Leto, when you get there!
Cacti
@Ella in New Mexico:
Why would that be very likely?
Ella in New Mexico
@Cacti: Because A. They already have some good exposure to the medical field and for some of these jobs, retraining would likely be covered either by a specific program as a part of the transition to single payer or as a part of an expansion of affordable education opportunity I think most of the Dems support. And B. Even if they chose not to, there WILL still be a demand for their skills all over the healthcare field, and quite frankly, many other sectors of the economy.
I mean, this seems pretty obvious. Would you make the same case about keeping coal mines in Kentucky running forever because the minors will become unemployed? No–we all recognize we’d have to find a way to transition them with retraining in other fields and investing in business that would hire them, eg. renewables or other green jobs.
Mel
@Leto: Congratulations on retirement!! Do all the things that make you happy!
J R in WV
@Mnemosyne:
I see no way for it to be any way but Very ugly indeed. Despicable idea, hope we can get the person who wrote up the new rules assigned to waking a beat on Rehobeth Beach…
Aleta
@R-Jud:
? Happy birthday! ?
Milkshakes are important … restore equilibrium.
Aleta
@R-Jud: ????
J R in WV
@Ella in New Mexico:
You are wasting your time and finger strokes trying to be reasonable with Cacti, who has rolled into trolldom lately. Anti health care, anti Professor Senator Warren, pro-nothing whatsoever as far as I can see.
He lied about your health care comment by selecting only part of what you said to boost his false arguments!
Aziz, light!
@Brachiator: Their positive energy notwithstanding, Bernie’s true believers helped elect Trump by depressing Democratic turnout. Next year, they intend to repeat the favor.
Brachiator
@Aziz, light!:
2016 was crazy, but I don’t quite buy the “depressing Democratic turnout” argument. I hope that Sanders’ candidacy starts to deflate before primary voting starts. Otherwise, we shall see what happens this election cycle.
Cacti
@J R in WV:
And again, Warren’s cultists confirm they’re as thin skinned as Bernie’s.
Ella in New Mexico
@J R in WV: Sad, but true. Thanks.