GOP USING HEALTHCARE FOR -NOT-SO-HIDDEN AGENDA

Unfortunately, the GOP,the people with money, the people in the pockets of the drug companies and healthcare insurance companies....are using Healthcare as a way to get their way again, given that thierguy didn't get in. Who do you have to be NOT to GET THIS? Unfortunately, the numbers of these non-thinkers are able to vote. To me they are unAmerican in practice, despite that fact that they feel they are right. These are the members of a party who, just for one example, want to do away with abortion but instead of using reason--probably because the members of their group are sadly lacking in intelligence enough to engage artfully enough to make their case--they bomb or worse stay silent or even DO outwardly support killers of abortion doctors.
In the history of the world, disagreements on strong issues have been around since man crawled out of the soup...(but they don't even believe that!--it all started 6000 years ago, according to these bimbos). There is a thing called negotiations.
OK..before you think I'm off the track... my focus here is on the design, from the beginning, of an entity's plan to achieve their goals. I chose abortion not because I'm against it, because I'm not. However, I do believe that this is a good example, to me, of an opinion--Anti-Abortion --that could just possibly be discussed in a rational manner...only if the right people could sit down long enough to discuss it. But perhaps this is an American thing. In my opinion, Europeans could sit down and discuss this in a rational manner and view it from all angles...as perhaps the Greeks would examine things. But just imagining Americans--especially GOP types, doing it is ,well, just laughable. They live in their own reality. You would think that if any of their supposedly passionate desires meant that much to them that they would be motivated to sit down and discuss it with the other side.
THE OBVIOUS: That the GOP are masters at PR. Anyone should be able to see by now that they are magicians, the GOP, masters of the sleight of hand..whatever they are doing in public...rest assured there is another agenda. Usually the same set, however: Money. Power. Winning.
Meanwhile, the rest of us, in the real reality, see the ozone layer being screwed up, wars being waged at the expense of some American lives and logarithmically more of foreign humans who are not only innocent, but more than likely, people of so much richer character than the ones who planned and executed these wars..people like Dick Cheney, George W. Bush, Donald Rumsfeld.
With Healthcare: it's all out there, we've been watching it. The GOP have many convinced--but we must define what the word convinced means. There IS a thing that can be named mass hypnotism. The real Capitol of the US has been Hollywood. I met a very nice young doctor from Finland years ago who told me her most vivid impression of America was it's television ads. She told me, "It amazes me that the commercials speak to the citizens as if they are 2 years old". I've never forgotten that. If you talk to the majority of people as if they are 2 years old--over an otherwise amazing machine like the television--for decades and generations, is it any wonder that their minds turn to mush and can be convinced of anything? Convinced to vote for a moron like Sarah Palin...who could have been President if McCain won and then passed away. Convinced that weapons of mass destruction are there from a guy who looks like a good old boy, like their friendly neighbor who believes in their God. Convinced of anything through simple association,..convinced of anything based on vague associations. These are hypnotists' techniques.
OK, readers, I have to at least try this.....(snapping fingers!)"WAKE UP!!!" Well, I tried.

Wendell Potter on the Ed Show--Sick for Profit

Obama's Faces of Health Care Reform

Check out these video stories of what the Republicans keep insisting is "the best health care in the world".

LET CONGRESS GO WITHOUT INSURANCE by Nicholas Kristof--this article removed from Facebook

I've no idea why this was removed from Facebook, but that caught my attention.Perhaps they think it is porn or something? Ridiculous. Perhaps right wing money had something to do with it.

Here it is: LET CONGRESS GO WITHOUT INSURANCE

Majority of physicians STILL SUPPORT PUBLIC OPTION.

Long movie here, worth the time...

I'm adding alot of things today. My hope is that when you have the time, i.e. a few hours, you will follow this particular BBC series: THE POWER OF NIGHTMARES Thank you.

Part One:



Part Two:



Part Three:

No matter what side you're on, WATCH THIS: "IRAQ FOR SALE"

This movie was made available, NOT in theaters, just prior to the 2006 election, on DVDs,..given away. I found mine in a little espresso shop in Ballard. The idea was for people to take one home and invite friends over to view it..

YOUNG TURKS REVIEW MOORE'S MOVIE

***C**A**P**I**T**A**L**I**S**M***

SINGLE PAYER IS NOT DEAD

http://www.singlepayeraction.org/

ATTENTION!! Please check these MADASHELLDOCTORS

The "DOC-LESS" TOWN HALL IN YAKIMA-REPORT

Dear Yakima Valley Progressive masses. I'm a little down on myself tonight. For not standing up with the very few folks who, of course, faced ridicule from the clap-happy Republican majority here in River-City who have been hypnotized into thinking they really believe in bi-partisan answers to the health-care issue. (Like Bush would have allowed anything like that, eh?)

But after 25 years living in Seattle, I guess I should not be too hard on myself. I truthfully wanted to see what we're up against, feel me? Mind Fog. Still here. Not mine. I want to thank those who spoke up for a public option at the microphone--I believe the first of which is Richard,...let that be all for now. I think maybe three followed him as the evening wore on, amidst lemming-claps.

--The State Senators presented a plan, without hand-outs, then took questions. Many folks thanked them for their presentation, and spoke on some of the plans like Health Savings Accounts and the specifics of these ideas, blatantly ignoring even the hint of considering the public option as something in their reality. Translation: Me thinkee Socialized Medicine makee wee into Nazi country...scaree. Forgetting too that we rank 37th in the world. --

Regarding that 37th in the World fact from the World Health Organization--( http://www.who.int/whr/2000/media_centre/press_release/en/index.html ) Bill Hinkle must have some reallly HOT sources. He stated as fact that this rating from the World Health Organization is not true. I guess Cle Elum's got a GOP think-tank. Who knew?!

A few physicians..I think three...spoke mostly against Medicare and more special topics..including tort reform, one droned on so long I really couldn't follow her complaint, except that it involved some pet peeve against Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital. If they have their way on the tort reform, perhaps my physician will have the freedom to do my operation after three or four Mint Juleps or Bloody Mary's more accurately if my name was Mary. Y'gotta loosen up, right? It probably does need looking into, but NOT with the rampant pre-conceived , "abortion issue" manner in which Republicans do almost everything. There's no room for negotiation with them. Never has been.

For the record, here's what I would have uttered at the microphone at the Yakima Convention Center on September 22, 2009--maybe I should've had a drink before.....( children, don't take that as license!)

Wendell Potter, former CIGNA Corp. exec. In charge of Corporate Communications, went public this summer after 20years with the company. He was not fired. He left his high-level position, with corporate jets with gold serving trays onboard—yes, he said that,--He left…..as his own decision. Not fired. No differences in personality. His own decision. On good terms. Except he’d had a change of heart once he faced the truth.

(..isn’t there something in the Bible about a rich man and an eye of a needle here?)

A note of background:

At the end of 2007 Potter defended CIGNA when it refused to pay for a 17 year old’s liver transplant surgery claiming the procedure was experimental. After protests garnered a lot of attention to the company, only then it reversed it’s decision..but it was too late. Just two hours after her surgery was approved, Nataline Sarkiyan…died.

(of course this url would not have been spelled out to my gape mouthed Republican Yakimaniac audience, had I the nerve to give this presentation….: here it is for you: http://cbs2.com/local/nataline.sarkisyan.CIGNA.2.615167.html )

This summer Wendell Potter went public at a Senate Congress Committee for the first time: He stated there, “The industry and it’s backers are using fear tactics as they did in 1994 to tar a transparent and accountable, publicly accountable health care option as “GOVERNMENT-RUN HEALTHCARE”…”..He goes on, “ but what we have today, Mr. Chairman, is ‘Wall-Street run Health Care’..that has proven itself an untrustworthy partner to it’s customers, to the doctors and hospitals who deliver care, and to the state and federal governments that attempt to regulate it. “

see it:

He stated on Bill Moyers’ show that at that level in the Corporation you see the numbers, but not people. You just want to please Wall Street expectations.

(Then, the obligatory “question” to the all-Republican group gathered onstage.)

What are you doing to make me, as a citizen, and as a 28 year veteran Seattle RN who understands baloney PR when I hear it, --what are you doing to make me put more trust in a Corporate-run, profit driven executive policy that determines my health care coverage, that is, the way it is now --- than an open, ..and to quote Wendell Potter himself, “an accountable, publicly accountable health care option..” ..one where people who CAN be held accountable, make coverage decisions, AND are NOT profit motivated?

Whatever drivel may have slipped from their mouths in response to my question, the question would remain in the rhetorical category. Unanswered. I should have asked it. However, given the audience, the experience was beneficial in taking the local temperature…rectally, in a way. I noticed that when the few courageous locals who have some common sense about the true state-of-affairs regarding health-care spoke, quite a number of Yakimaniacs “jumped” as if someone had stuck a glass thermometer into the sphyncter muscle that we normally cannot see without mirrors.

Full disclosure: before I stepped from the mic, after listening to the local doctors who are against "government-run health-care", I'd decided that I would add:

As a nurse of 28 years, I've learned by now not to trust that every smiley-faced physician who has developed that "you-can-trust-me" face has as full a grip on all reality as they think they do. They never seem to remember that they are only one physician. There is a need in their lives...a valid need...to BE like that because they DO have a difficult job to do and require that kind of trust to do it well. With all that in mind, then WHY has the AMA in September been polled at 63% favoring a choice including both the public option and private insurance.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112818960

FYI: The meeting tonight will air on Y-PAC when they announce it.

Healthcare CEO personal profits 2007 from Marylandtriallawyer.net

see: http://marylandtriallawyer.net/domestic-violence/when-getting-beaten-by-your-husband-is-a-pre-existing-condition/

ANNUAL COMPENSATION 2007:

* Ronald A. Williams, Chair/ CEO, Aetna Inc., $23,045,834
* H. Edward Hanway, Chair/ CEO, Cigna Corp, $30.16 million
* David B. Snow, Jr, Chair/ CEO, Medco Health, $21.76 million
* Michael B. MCallister, CEO, Humana Inc, $20.06 million
* Stephen J. Hemsley, CEO, UnitedHealth Group, $13,164,529
* Angela F. Braly, President/ CEO, Wellpoint, $9,094,771
* Dale B. Wolf, CEO, Coventry Health Care, $20.86 million
* Jay M. Gellert, President/ CEO, Health Net, $16.65 million
* William C. Van Faasen, Chairman, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Mass., $3 million plus $16.4 million in retirement benefits
* Charlie Baker, President/ CEO, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, $1.5 million
* James Roosevelt, Jr., CEO, Tufts Associated Health Plans, $1.3 million
* Cleve L. Killingsworth, President/CEO Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, $3.6 million
* Raymond McCaskey, CEO, Health Care Service Corp (Blue Cross Blue Shield), $10.3 million
* Daniel P. McCartney, CEO, Healthcare Services Group, Inc, $1,061,513
* Daniel Loepp, CEO, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, $1,657,555
* Todd S. Farha, CEO, WellCare Health Plans, $5,270,825
* Michael F. Neidorff, CEO, Centene Corp, $8,750,751

Will Ferrell Stands up for the REAL healthcare victim

Protect Insurance Companies PSA from Will Ferrell

leproletariat.com

Please visit this website I inherited from my old friend Jack Demson, for many links:

leproletariat.com .

Thanks..ttyl
Dan

New Blog Meeting place for Progressive Yakimaniacs

Welcome. My name is Dan Thomas. I have moved back to Yakima from Seattle after about 25 years. Except for
the Yakima Herald-Republic newspaper's editorials and letters to the editor, my sense is that there is a need for
a venue for Progressive thought. I know there are Progressive thinkers in the Valley and Central Washington in general, but if there is a place or way they bond, it has escaped me.
In the 60's and 70's, my "formative" years, my pals and I would always joke about the "mind fog" that enveloped us if we were driving or hitch-hiking back from Seattle to Yakima. It was palpable. We had all grown up here. While The Valley is made up of multitudes of sincere, hard-working folks, the effects of changes in the world have escaped many of them. I guess some explanation like this is what caused the mind-fog. As an RN who has worked a significant portion of my career in Behavioral or Mental Health, I still struggle to explain the "mind-fog".
Yakima's "mind-fog" may not be unique. Perhaps my motivation in starting this blog is my underlying belief that the
division in our whole country right now, is somehow that same phenomenon at work.
I do have my own views, but I don't know everything, so I invite primarily folks from the Yakima Valley, Central Washington in general, or anyone who has vested interest in The Valley to contribute their thinking to any contributions made.
Focus on National Issues from contributors is welcomed primarily, and I urge everyone to be helpful...myself included. I can get passionate about certain topics, and I hope you do to0, but change won't happen until we stop and take a bird's eye view. I guess I mean that when you realize you are talking to a rock, stop...so I'm being a bit cryptic to those who don't get it! Some National topics could include local events, too. I may redefine this focus as time goes by.
This is my first blog, if you haven't guessed by now.
Issues that get my mind going are right now: #1!: HEALTHCARE ( of course ), ...others in no particular order are Legalizing all drugs--please check out LAW ENFORCEMENT AGAINST PROHIBITION At: www.leap.cc/cms/index.php , the fact that the Republican ('t) Party has been taken over by an elite group of power hungry rich in the pockets of lobbyists of all kinds who just want things to stay the same at all costs, how in God?'s name ( question mark intended) the GOP chose a nit-wit like Sarah Palin for the VP...
There are many more issues, but one thing in particluar I would like anyone even vaguely interested in coming back here to explore for themselves is a radio talk show host named Thom Hartmann who is way too hip to be considered for a local station. He can be heard online, however, from a number of websites, including his own:

thomhartmann.com

or from Seattle's AM1090 KPTK here:

www.am1090seattle.com/pages/218296.php

I sometimes choose to get Thom on iTunes, as well. From his site you will find archives and options for hearing/seeing his show live. In my opinion,Thom Hartmann is without doubt one of the smartest men in America, having written books on Thomas Jefferson ("What would Jefferson Do?"),"Cracking the Code: How to Win Hearts, Change Minds, and Restore America's Original Vision", "ADD, a different Perspective", "Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight", a very provocative look at not only oil, but many of our addictions we may be unaware of, co-writer on a very thorough book about the assassination of JFK, ...I suggest you visit his site for a complete run down on his myriad accomplishments. His most recent book is called "THRESHHOLD, the Crisis of Western Culture". This is only a sampling of his books. Does he ever sleep? I wonder that all the time.

Thom broadcasts from 9 to 12 our time, Pacific, every weekday. He has call in's, takes emails, has a live blog going on as he speaks/interviews, etc..he interviews exceptional people from both sides...unlike Druggie Limbaugh who screens his calls mostly to avoid real discussions, and thus 'dumbing down America'.

Of particular note is the first hour on Friday when he has Senator Bernie Sanders from Vermont, an Independent, who is without doubt one of the most Progressive thinkers we have.
Thom is perhaps the most intelligent radio talk show host in the USA right now, at least on the left and, just saying that implies the whole USA.
Ok, for now, I'm done. I have a lunch date.
ttyl
Dan