How The Gummint Made Me Eat Broccoli

Actually, that's a bit of  stretch. I had been a long time member of the I Hate Broccoli club, (that counted amongst its' most famous members Bush 1 and Alfalfa, he of the Little Rascals fame) until my spouse of many years finally convinced me to actually, taste them. Hers was a very convincing argument, "eat your broccoli or the couch will be your future resting place". Since I could not muster any argument against that irrefutable logic, I acquiesced, and while it is not high on my "gotta have" list; I don't mind it all that much.

At about this time the reader is probably wondering where I am going with all this talk about broccoli. Well, it has to do with a comment made by Antonin Scalia during the last day of our collective exercise of watching paint dry, aka The Affordable Care Act arguments before the Supreme Court last week. In the course of arguing as to what end the government should be involved in the Health Insurance Industry Justice Scalia trotted out one of the conservative arguments that it would be a slippery slope that would ultimately lead the Feds telling us what to eat.

It is an argument based on nothing except the knee jerk reactions that one has come to expect from the right wing of the right wing Republican Party that is hell bent on taking the country back to some idyllic past that never existed. I won't comment on original intent or Commerce Clause simply because I'm no Constitutional scholar, but I will speak to some common sense ideas that the right refuses to see, whether they are incapable or not intelligent enough to concede that a healthy populace is good for everyone involved.

I was at the doctors' office a couple of weeks ago; he is a nice enough fellow and while I have had to get used to the idea that he is not twelve, he seems to be on top of the latest vis-a-vis diabetes and the like. I came in for lab results and he was fairly pleased that I have my condition pretty much under control, although I am still still a sucker for a good vanilla malt or a great coconut cake. I also needed him to get prior authorization for a medication I have been using for the last two years. This medication is one of the reasons I have been able to keep the Diabetes II under control, in spite of the occasional slip into "gotta have" sweets.

I overheard a conversation between a Pharma rep and the Doc as to how insurance companies are holding their feet to the fire when it comes to approving medical tests, prescriptions and some medical procedures without first obtaining prior authorization. These two are the very same fellows who a month before were bemoaning the Socialist takeover by the Gummint of the health care system, aka the Affordable Care Act signed by President Obama. Their complaint followed along the same lines that opponents of the ACA have been using. That it is a slippery slope and that unless it is stopped we'll all have to eat broccoli...Yeah, I don't get it either.

I reminded them that their current argument about cost containment by the insurance companies was nothing short of a bureaucratic "doling' of care; not unlike the fears that they claim will happen under the ACA.

The health insurance company that covers my spouse and I has recently insisted that we not fill our prescriptions at the pharmacy where we have done business for the last fifteen years and instead use their pharmacy located who knows where. It is doing precisely that which opponents of the ACA are getting their panties in a wad, telling us "Freedom Loving Americans" where and how to spend our hard earned money. Don't get me wrong, I like a good bargain as much as the next guy, but can anyone tell me how a "pharmacist" who does not know me is able to give me better advice than the pharmacist my family and I have been doing business with over the past decade and a half.

Clearly, the conservative argument that the government is attempting a takeover of the Health Care Insurance Industry is merely a knee-jerk reaction to any program proposed by President Obama; I'm of the opinion that if the President walked on water, the complaint on the republican side is that he can't swim...

Anyway... the good news is that my insurance company won't make me eat cauliflower...

And there it is...






 

The Acceptance of Ignorance

You've come a long way baby; a very successful ad campaign touting the "liberating" aspects of smoking to the fight for women's' right. Phillip Morris took a very real struggle for health and bent the words to their own advantages, an Orwellian approach, if you will, targeting the empowering aspects of freedom and extending the same to describing how cool it was that women had their own "Marlboro Man' moment.

Well it seems that we as a populace have taken those Orwellian distortions and applied them to so many aspects of our lives that we find it difficult to sort through the noise and find truly objective information; so many in this country are taking great pride in parading their ignorance and demanding that we accept their version of truth in spite of all the credible evidence to the contrary. This nation of immigrants is now painting immigration as the greatest evil ever.  Television pundits are being paid every day to spread misinformation on the airways without being called to account. Education is being portrayed as an indoctrination tool the 'social secular elites' are using to inculcate the children of this nation to who knows what end.

When the a Ptolomeic view of the universe was being challenged by the Copernican view (they were both wrong, but Copernicus was less wrong), the learned men of the times were gnashing their teeth and rending garments since it had to be obvious that G-d created the Earth ergo the universe was logically thought to revolve around The Earth as opposed to any other point of view. The Church, perhaps feeling its sway over public opinion being threatened did all it could to dissuade anyone of this notion. Galileo, perhaps picking up where Copernicus left off, added fuel to the fire. We were not all that, as a matter of fact, compared to the rest of the universe, we were fairly inconsequential in the grand scheme of things.

What we are seeing today is the willful acceptance of ignorance; while we can state with some certainty that access to information was a bit limited in the past, we know that any kid with library and internet resources at the ready can almost immediately debunk any revisionist interpretation of history. We, as a society, have grown accustomed to the big lie; the moon landing was a hoax, the holocaust never happened and that the WWF is a true sporting event. We allow demagogues to twist and bend opinions into faux-facts, and when challenged, these same demagogues blame the media or other such group as being 'elite' and out of touch with the American psyche.

The notion that teaching history should remain in the realm of opinion, as demonstrated in the recent actions taken by the Tucson United School District and the elimination of Chicano\Latino studies in AZU, is a dangerous first step in the scrubbing of the past.

So here we are; the world is six thousand years old and flat, dinosaurs ran around with Adam and Eve, the past is being viewed with rose colored gauze and we can hardly agree on basic facts. Yet, this is where this country and society are headed; in a race to the bottom and we're leading the pack.

As Vonnegut used to say..."and there it goes"

A 21st Century Christmas Carol

The Republican dominated legislature of Arizona, along with the Governor , are proving the adage...The truth is stranger is stranger than fiction...armed with an admittedly skewed survey they unilaterally removed funding for those who had already received approval for transplant funding.   


People who were told that they would soon be able to receive organ transplants were shocked when they were told that there was no money available in the till, shocked to realize that the Republican controlled Legislature had disallowed the expenditure of funds towards those who qualified under Arizona's version of Medicaid aka AHHCS (access).


These folks had already been approved for the procedures in question; all were waiting for a donor. Most knew that finding a donor can sometimes be like looking for a needle in a stack of needles, but they were hopeful nonetheless. 


Francisco Felix is a man with Hep C who, in a cruel twist, located a liver from a relative who was a match, but since he was cut from funding, the liver he found was given to someone else. Removing those with Hepatitis C from financial assistance targets many of the poor, especially people of color who seem to make up an disproportionate number among those with Hepatitis C.


Another individual, Mark Price was the recipient of a gift from an anonymous angel who came forward to pay for the procedure, only to die just before the operation. He was next in line to receive a bone marrow transplant until he was removed from the list.   


One, but not all, of the reasons given by Jan Brewster, is that receiving some cancer treatments fall into the "optional" category and that there is no guarantee that the treatment will succeed, somehow ignoring the irony that she and the legislature have guaranteed the efficacy of no transplant, death.


In this 21st century iteration of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, the bankers are played by the Arizona Legislature and the Scrooge character by Jan Brewer; she of the "headless corpses" in the desert.

It is increasingly clear that the policies put in place in Arizona have the heaviest impact on those of us who cannot afford the thousands of dollars needed in order to receive the "greatest" health care in the world.  


It should come as no surprise that the Republicans in power throughout the country will soon be emulating the tactics and policies in Arizona in order to balace their budgets.  They have made it very clear that they are no friend to those in need, whether they be poor or middle class. They will attempt to balance budgets on the backs of those who can least afford it.  


They know the poor and the sick have no advocates in the halls of Congress, no high priced lobbyists; they know that the media will only latch onto this story for only a few moments or until the next blonde goes missing.


They know that people would rather hear about the comings and goings of the half-term governor of Alaska and her brood, the next American Idol or which sub saharan country Angelina is going to adopt next. 


It proves the old saying...the rich are different...


Eso es así...






   

The Last Thursday in November

Two days before the annual eat-fest that is the last Thursday in November; i wonder whether some people are not really understanding what this day means to us who are not descendants of the Mayflower or unforced immigrants.

There are some who give a too literal definition of the Thanksgiving Ritual; for some it is a celebration of of life in the so-called New World, for others, it is a painful recollection of stolen dreams and vivid nightmares glossed over by images of black-hatted Puritans pushing ever westward towards the final conquest of a continent.

I won't try to bridge that divide, I'll leave that to others much more qualified than me to make that argument. My effort today is to give my opinions on what this day means to me and to perhaps other people of color. 

I don't believe that any of us have ever bought into the myth that about Plymouth Rock and Squanto of the Patuxet; and while there is a germ of truth in any myth, the reality is usually much different. I understand that we have all participated either as children or as parents in the ubiquitous Thanksgiving plays and activities, but I have to believe that while we smiled for the audiences, we knew that it was not our story.  

Our story is much different, it is a story that endures through time, forced labor, discriminatory practices codified as law; and outright hatred on the part of some people in this country. 

It endures because we keep out our eyes wide open to the injustices that befall many of those less fortunate, it endures because the basis of our hope lies within our families, families united in and by blood; families we create by choice, and even those parts of our families that at first blush may seem to be in an dysfunctional state.

It endures because it must; we have no choice in that matter, the shoulders we stand on will become the shoulders our children and grandchildren will stand on.

We know that Thanksgiving as an American holiday does not necessarily line up with our reality; but it does give us another reason to gather around people we love and even some we just tolerate, that is what I, and I believe many people of color take away from this last Thursday of November, we may have Turkey or Pernil, we may have have ham,  or lamb if we are keeping kosher or halal. 

We may be serving Pasteles or Tamales, many of us will watch a game or two on the box pondering whether we should have another helping, while others will be playing flag-football. Some will be celebrating the arrival of a new member of the family, or remembering those who passed before us. Sadly, there will be others who will take that celebratory toast a bit too far and we must find ways to help them find a way out of the morass that is not allowing them to be the best that they can be.

That is what makes the last Thursday in November a day to enjoy, reflect, laugh and sometimes cry; it's part of the whole megilla, el cuento total de nuestras vidas...

Open Carry, Arizona SB1070, Florida Bill No.6 and other Republican Follies

The past couple of weeks we have been treated to a traveling minstrel show know as the Tea Party Express, featuring half-term governor and fully failed VP candidate in the 2008 election Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachman, J.D. Hayworth and a cast of loony wannabees; courtesy of the Republican Party, although each has disavowed the other.

We’ve seen, or rather heard of the hundreds of protests attended by many dozens of people protesting everything from open carry laws to the nations’ slow but inexorable march towards ‘socialism.

We have seen or heard the commotion caused by the passing of SB1070, in the Arizona Legislature that seems to bestow powers to local and state law enforcement to stop and ask for papers proving one’s legality to be at that particular geographic locale. The Governor can sign, veto, or just allow the bill to become law by her inaction.

The bill has a provision that allows citizens to sue localities if they feel they have not been aggressive enough in the enforcement of said bill.

The title of the bill, “Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act,” is similar in name to other Orwellian right wing obfuscations such as, clean coal, clean air and others that strain the imagination.

This bottom line effect is to empower local and state law enforcement agencies to stop and question anyone they deem has “a reasonable suspicion” of not being in the U.S. legally. The definition of ‘reasonable suspicion’ is so vague that one can rightly suspect that anyone having a taquito for lunch may be stopped and asked “where are your papers”…and…well, you get the idea.

I don’t think Governor Brewer will sign this bill, however, I don’t believe she’ll veto it either, right wing politics being what they are in Arizona, she will take the easy way out allow the bill to become law in 90 days…here’s hoping I’m wrong

On to Senate Bill 6 passed by the both houses in Florida and vetoed by Republican Governor Charlie Crist; among the more draconian affects this bill would have eliminated tenure for teachers and based their pay on outcomes, or more to the point what percentage of students in heir care scored on the various standardized tests being given throughout the K-12 system. It would not have factored in students with disabilities, learning or otherwise.

Anyone with just a smattering of common sense knows that some people don’t test well; you could well have ended up with a student who has done great work in the class room, great attendance, but tested bad on those three days of tests….

I don’t know what motivated Charlie Crist to veto this bill; it could have been any number of reasons, his sputtering primary run at the senate, his desire to free himself from imploding Republican Party, I just don’t know. Whatever his reasons may have been, he did the right thing.

Charlie Crist does not ask me for advice, but for what it’s worth, he’s a popular governor, he’s from the left coast of Florida, St. Pete to be exact, and that alone carries an element of cool that cannot be measured. He should drop out of the Senate primary, and leave the race; I suspect that there would be many a Democrat and Independents who would view this move in a positive manner.
And now to the fun part of this rant.
There have been several so- called “Open Carry” rallies around the country, protesting the alleged confiscation of weapons and other sundry and ridiculous moves by the ‘gummint’ against “real Americans”…the half term governor of Alaska and utterly failed 2008 VP candidate, Sarah Palin has been criss-crossing the country on the Tea Bag Express sending shivers up the spine of the ‘real americans’, warning them that at some point in the future the government will come in the dead of night and take your weapons from you; she screeches, “…don’t retreat, reload…”

She claims ‘they’ want to kill granny with their death panels, and that Jesus, was and is the leader of this Christian Nation, and if you don’t share her belief, well then, I guess you won’t be one of the cool kids.

She claims that ‘they’ will subvert the 2nd amendment, and several groups have formed around the country with the stated purpose to defend their perceived right to carry weapons openly wherever they go.

Gun Owners of America and the Oath Keepers are two of the most visible groups running around scared that the sky is falling. I don’t remember a single ‘open carry’ during the nightmare that was the Bush fiasco. I don’t remember a single ‘open carry’ rally when the Patriot Act was passed in the middle of the night by the Republican controlled Congress, that among other things, allowed no-knock home invasions by the police, ‘sneak and peeks’ allowing the government to go into your home and then get a warrant.

I wonder what would be the reaction if Black and Brown folks started attending some of these Tea Bag and Open Carry rallies with their legally purchased weapons strapped to their hips, what would be the reaction if Black and Brown folks carried their rifles and shotguns to political rallies as some anti-Obama protesters have done during the campaign.

Wait, I really don’t have to wonder, look at the political persecution that haunted Black Panthers after they staged their protests on the steps of the Capitol in Sacramento; let’s not forget Wounded Knee, the Brown Berets, and the Young Lords Party in New York.



Well, as Vonnegut used to say…and so it goes…!

In Haiti and Chile: People or Property First

A quick and unscientific glance at what it is that seems to carry more weight; the care and comfort of the people, who by no fault of their own, are victims of natural disasters, or the protection of property held in private, and to a lesser extent, government hands.

While I have been subject to the vicissitudes of mother Earth, we had three hurricanes literally cross through my backyard a few years back, it was nothing compared to the damage my family endured when Andrew decided to” come a callin’”. My folks huddled for five or six hours in the only corner of the house that remained relatively intact; along with, if memory serves me right, my sister and her husband, a couple of dogs, a cat and a parrot named Cuca,who still suffers from the anxiety of that time manifested by plucking all her feathers when there is any sort of tension in the air.

When they emerged, what they saw would be permanently etched in their collective memories; the destruction and devastation was legion. Tubs on top of autos on top of roofs on top of swimming pools. Then as now, there were reports of looting and the state of Florida wasted no time in calling out the National Guard to primarily protect property, the food aid came later. We knew Andrew was coming, just as we know today, almost ad nauseum, when the next one is going to hit and where.

Having that information comes in handy, because we can generally agree on what actions we need to gather in order lessen as much as possible, the oncoming storms.

Earthquakes are very different; preparations on the individual level is limited to stocking up on water, candles, canned foods, emergency medical supplies and the like. In terms of infrastructure it is the responsibility of federal, state, and local municipalities to impose strict guidelines in earthquake prone areas. While it is true that some builders and contractors will try to game the system, it is also true that in those areas where natural disasters are not unexpected these highly enforced building plans are more able to withstand the natural course of events than those that do not. A cursory look at building codes after Andrew, Oakland and the Bay Area after the World Series quake, Los Angeles, Japans’ urban areas are good examples of positive reactive measures now being transformed into proactive actions on the part of government and the private sector.

What the hell does that have to do with the title of your post?

This morning, the headlines screamed how thousands of troops are headed to the quake ravaged region of Concepcion to stanch the outbreak of looting that some say is running rampant throughout the area. I watched some very interesting videos and still photos of some of the damage. Apartment buildings leaning in precarious positions; waiting for the next aftershock to finally bring them down; reminiscent of the buildings in the Marina District in San Francisco and throughout Los Angeles.

There were signs that some “looting” was\had been going on, but to place it in its’ proper, I don’t know that you or I would not have done the same. I don’t remember the bloggers’ name, but she\he made a very cogent argument for looting in the face of starvation or shelter.

It is without question that while the best of humanity can be measured by its’ actions in the face of adversity, the inverse is also true. The sharks circle the prey during these difficult times, if water is a dollar a bottle, it will climb to five dollars a bottle. If gas is $2.50 a gallon, the predators will make a killing with inflated prices. That seems to be the nature of the beast, and all the “We Are The World” videos are not going to change that.

However, as in Haiti, the Chilean governments initial action is to protect property first, and then to see to the needs of the people. The case in Haiti is a bit different because of the historical disregard the various iterations of ‘government’ ruling Haiti had and still has towards its’ people. That example actually worked to the advantage of the people of Haiti, since the ‘government’ was a sham, its’ inability to respond militarily was sporadic at best. The focus seemed to center on the humanitarian aid; with the occasional report of shootings by police guarding chain locked supermarkets and pharmacies, although we were not shown what was going on outside of Port-au-Prince.

The imperative to survive is central to any species, if your children are cold, you must provide shelter, if they are hungry, you must provide sustenance and if they are ill or hurt, it is your duty to seek help, even if it means breaking into a locked pharmacy, or a bodega covered with plywood.

Looting historically has been the way kings and queens paid their vassal troops after invading this or that nation state, tribe, and so on. Loot took different forms, most looting in the past has been for monetary gain; whether it was in gold, silver or human cargo, it did not seem to matter.

 I have seen firsthand, the hooliganism,  the riots in Harlem and the Bronx, in the early and mid sixties; and while the inequalities of justice and opportunities were at the forefront, the seamier side of humanity reared its’ ugly head. Shops were broken into; people were assaulted by the police and their fellow neighbors, fire and rescue personnel were attacked while trying to save what they could. That was looting pure and simple; for material gain and not as a tool for survival. Much has been written about these and other instances. The riots and looting in L.A and Detroit had no survival construct; and although the political reasons for these actions may be debated the actions themselves were unforgivable.

That was looting in one of its’ ugliest forms, destruction for the sake of destruction.

In Haiti, there was a photo of a man shot dead by the local constabulary in front of a store; clutched in his fist was the apparent evidence of his crime, a plastic bag with what seems to be three of four bottles of water. Which is the bigger crime, the need to provide for ones family or the need to protect private property?

In Chile, thousands of troops are being deployed to stop what the government and the media described as ‘rampant’ looting. The media and the government of Chile use words like ‘ransacked’ and ‘rampant’, as if the need to make it to the next day is a villainous act. As usual, the people most impacted are the indigenous people of Chile although an earthquake doesn’t give a damn who you are of where you’re from. I mention it because as a matter of demographics, if you live on the periphery of any society chances are you’re going to get the short end of the stick. I have seen the pictures; I have watched the videos and what I see is nothing more than the imperative to survive in full bloom. There was an AP photo on Huffington Post of what seems to be a pharmacy, the shelves bare of water and other things like bandages, medicines and water; prominent displayed in the very front of the store was a full shelf of productos íntimos; apparently these so-called looters were less interested in condoms than in emergency supplies.

The pictures are different in Haiti, what was already horrific, became more so; the years of corrupt governments aided and abetted by the West will not end with this outpouring of aid. Haitian children will still be eating mud the next news cycle begins. Haiti was pushed aside by the Olympics, and will be pushed aside again, this time by the tragedy in Chile or Tiger Woods.
The protection of property should never be at the cost of human beings trying to make it to the next hour, or to the next day. The media behaves like most corporate entities behave; they are not here to provide a service, they are here to protect their interests.

Governments on the other hand, have a moral duty to its’ citizens, and they should be shamed when they do not.

Oh…and if I’ve pissed anyone off…oh well…

Doctor Doctor, Can You Help Me Out

I’ve been watching the so-called “Health Care” summit for the last seven hours; I do this so you won’t have to. Unfortunately I am as uninformed now as when it started; I take that back, I think I actually know less than when it first started.

This is what I know to be true; there are too many people who face very difficult decisions about their health care; I count myself among the many that have made Hobson’s choices when it comes to allocating resources to medical and prescription expenses. I have a child who may have to face a future without proper health care because he has a pre-existing condition; I fully expect him to have a family and he’ll have to provide health care for his family, but may find himself placed in a position where the choice is no choice at all.

I have another who went many years without insurance for his family because it was prohibitively expensive; it was not until the company he worked for were finally able to offer health insurance that they were able to receive coverage, although I shuddered when I saw how high his premiums were; they will soon add another child to an already lovely family and their out of pocket expenses are sure to be through the roof.

I have a daughter with three beautiful children who, only by the grace of G-D, has not encountered any serious health problems, but I also know that she is hampered by her inability to provide preventive care for herself or her children.

I had the misfortune some years back to come down with a debilitating chronic illness, coupled with two spinal operations. The care I received was excellent…the chronic disease is under control thanks to a great immunologist and his ability to properly diagnose the condition. To clarify a point, the disease was discovered during an annual “let’s make sure you’re ok” exam, serendipity reared her lovely face.

I had pretty good insurance and my out of pocket expense were, let’s just say that the poor house was definitely on the horizon.

I’ve had two spinal operations two years apart and the prognosis is that I may need another one; and while the skill and care of the medical professionals were without par, I doubt that I will undergo another; the damn recovery is too painful. The fact that I had insurance did not eliminate out of pocket expenses, they were substantial and we’re still paying four years later.

One example, I get two injections every two weeks, my deductible…One hundred dollars a month, now I could stop the injections, but then I’d be in the emergency room and ICU every couple of months. That is just one example

I live in a household with my wife and her eighty-one year old mother. She has the Medicare Part D prescription plan, which she pays for, and for the first six or seven months, her out of pocket expenses average about one hundred-fifty dollars a month. However, when she hits the ‘donut’ hole; she has to pay full boat, and that figures jumps to about five hundred dollars a month.

We cheat…those medications that she and I have in common, I will share mine with her so that she does not have to pay the inflated price…that is not always possible, but we do what we can. My wife and I do the same thing, when we can.

There are too many people that are not as fortunate as I am, which brings me to the so-called Health Care Summit. Disclosure: I voted for President Obama and still see this presidency as a last roadblock to the laizes-faire approach to governing of the past twenty years.

Seven plus hours of back and forth bickering exposed what we have known for many years; the overriding concern of the Republican Party is to mimic the post-industrial society of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, or to paraphrase Dickens…are there no poor houses…?

I kept hearing that those who are very poor receive care because Medicaid will take care of them; I have a friend in Georgia whose spouse is slowly fading that would take issue with that statement.

Strawmen arguments put forth by the republicans were tort reforms, junk lawsuits, reconciliation, blah blah blah.

I firmly believe that this is a crucial time ranking with the Civil Rights Bill of 1964, and will dictate what direction this country will take.

Best line of the day: You are entitled to your own opinions; you are not entitled your own set of facts.

There ya go…