Yesterday’s 98° high set another new record for the date. Today’s forecast 100° promises to do the same. The AC keeps it bearable in my room, but the temperature in bathroom with the handicapped shower is currently 85°. Wendy is due in about 45 minutes to de-stink the putrid TomCat. As I noted before, I think the TomCat will have to de-stink Wendy too. Later: It was so hot that Wendy was happy to throw on a swimsuit, so we could drench each other with a cool spray. What fun!
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 5:32 (average 7:41). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From Daily Kos: Former President Barack Obama used his Facebook page to deliver a message to Republicans as they consider dismantling the Affordable Care Act, “step back and measure what’s really at stake.” Read his thoughtful, heartbreaking statement on the attempt to take away health care coverage from tens of millions of Americans:
Our politics are divided. They have been for a long time. And while I know that division makes it difficult to listen to Americans with whom we disagree, that’s what we need to do today.
I recognize that repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act has become a core tenet of the Republican Party. Still, I hope that our Senators, many of whom I know well, step back and measure what’s really at stake, and consider that the rationale for action, on health care or any other issue, must be something more than simply undoing something that Democrats did.
Thank you, Mr. President. Click through for the rest. It’s worth it. RESIST!!
From NY Times: …On Thursday, Senate Republicans joined their House colleagues in proposing steep cuts to Medicaid, part of the effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Conservatives hope to roll back what they see as an expanding and costly entitlement. But little has been said about what would happen to older Americans in nursing homes if the cuts took effect.
Under federal law, state Medicaid programs are required to cover nursing home care. But state officials decide how much to pay facilities, and states under budgetary pressure could decrease the amount they are willing to pay or restrict eligibility for coverage.
“The states are going to make it harder to qualify medically for needing nursing home care,” predicted Toby S. Edelman, a senior policy attorney at the Center for Medicare Advocacy. “They’d have to be more disabled before they qualify for Medicaid assistance.”
States might allow nursing homes to require residents’ families to pay for a portion of their care, she added. Officials could also limit the types of services and days of nursing home care they pay for, as Medicare already does.
Click through. If it passes, RepubliCare will force many seniors out of their nursing homes and leave them helpless in the streets. RESIST!!
From Think Progress: The Nebraska Democratic Party has removed a party official after he was recorded saying he was glad House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) was shot, according to a Fox News affiliate [Faux Noise Delinked].
“His whole job is to get people, convince Republicans to fucking kick people off fucking health care,” Phil Montag, a technology chairman with the state Democratic Party, said in the verified audio recording [Faux Noise Delinked]. “I hate this motherfucker, I’m glad he got shot.”
“I’m glad he got shot, I’m not going to fucking say that in public,” Montag added. An unidentified male later says he would release the recording publicly.
I condemn Montag and his statements as anti-Democratic and anti-American. However, the Democratic party fired Montag for his hatred. Had he been a Republican, saying he was gkas a Democrat had been shot, the Republican Party would have promoted him for it. RESIST!!
Cartoon:
Once in a long while, the good guys win one.
11 Responses to “Open Thread – 6/25/2017”
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6:24 Hardest one ever is back. (Don’t eat it, you’d get a hairball).
It’s actually cooler here than it was all last week. I wonder how long that will last.
DKos – It’s sure too bad no one who needs to read it will do so.
NY Times – Heaven knows a lot of seniors would prefer being at home to living in nursing homes – though by no means all seniors feel this way. But this doesn’t allow them to do either. And you can bet sleeping on concrete isn’t going to alleviate any age-related pain.
incidentally, I guess cuteness is healing, but I don’t think even cuteness is as healing as all this:
TP – Yes, he was wrong to say that (and unbelievably stupid to think that saying it ANYWHERE was NOT saying it in public.) And wouldn’t the Republican party promote him indeed! Yet people still say “Both sides do it.” Arrrgggghh !!
Cartoon – A federal judge just recently – this week, I think – stopped DAPL construction because the environmental review was not good enough and ordered them to do it again. Man, I hope that holds. But I’m not holding my breath. And Chase Iron Eyes is still in their crosshairs.
T hope that holds too!
WRT the NY Times article
I’m so thankful my Mom had the foresight to get LTC (Long-Term Care) insurance decades ago when the premiums were reasonable.
Even so, I had to battle them tooth-and-nail to get her the home-care services she was entitled to after she fell and broke her hip. But once she moved in to her Assisted Living apartment, it went much smoother.
It’ll be three years this November that she moved in, so the $2.4k/mos. she now gets FROM them has MORE than covered all of her premiums! (You stop paying premiums once you move in).
The fact that she’s now cutting into their profit margins is one of the sweetest pounds of flesh I’ve ever enjoyed. (See, I can be petty … not like that was ever in doubt.) But the sad things are [1] Her policy is through the church synod; and [2] What do people do who do NOT have children ready to do battle (and being a physician certainly helped in doing battle).
Hope things start cooling down soon. Given the wide swath of America now gripped in a killer heat wave, I bet a good number of us are envious of the “Splashdance” gorilla at the Dallas Zoo:
He really does rock, doesn’t he? (I guess it’s “he,” though we’re really not on those terms.) He’s probably cooler than any inmates in any prisons in or near Dallas, too. Texas doesn’t believe in air conditioning for prisons.
Is that a gorilla or the Squatch?
DK: So true, so true. sniff!!! I sure do miss MR. President !!
NYT: For those seniors, like my MIL before she passed, who had difficulty getting around @the house, she moved to a nursing home, and being on a very limited budget, she was on Medicaid. She was tended to, and being diabetic, received daily medical attention. Even as she even was transported to Hospice, she was covered. This breaks my heart as there will be no medical coverage, nor assistance, nor any respect or dignity to those that, and must have, nursing care/or/a home health care aide. UNbelievable!! & Horrid for the reTHUGS to even do this (or trying to get this passed!) to the millions who need help!!!! (you can bet that TX will be embracing this also. Makes me ill.
TP: What a stupid thing to say, and so demoralizing to a person being shot. Yes, they (R) would have been delighted and given a standing ovation. u.g.h!!!
Cartoon: Yes, indeed.
Boy, now that’s hot! Glad y’all had fun!! Enjoy the rest of your day, and evening, take care, and Thanks, Tom.
The DK and NY T articles are related. Pres. Obama makes much sense, as he usually has, but the Rethugs give not a damn for the populace beyond the 1%. Actually, the three articles are related, as Scalise is seen by Montag as just another cog in the GOPig wheel! I, also, am glad the Dems did the right thing in Montag’s regard, but it i, nonetheless, sad that the behavior of the GOPigs is odious! ?
The Sunday NY Times magazine, for 4/23/17, is dedicated to climate change issues, and, among other things cites various true facts, refers nothings people can actually see, about the true changes being wrought by climate change. One of the scariest parts of this is the issue of mosquito borne diseases which are already moving into the U.S. Texas, home of Rick Perry, and Florida, whose awful governor our more awful president is trying to convince to run for congress, are two hot spots for this. The GOPig effort to erase the Obama presidency, and more, will only put the country at still more increased risk! These clowns, and the rest of their ilk, are indeed hateful!
Puzzle — 6:32 That is the hardest one I think. As JD says, “Don’t eat it, you’d get a hairball”, although I think it would give you lots of fiber.
Daily Kos — “…and consider that the rationale for action, on health care or any other issue, must be something more than simply undoing something that Democrats did.” — It is not what Democrats did. It is what Obama did as he dared to be president while Black. Obama is correct of course, but Republicans won’t see it that way. Just listen to Drumpf as he castigates Obama at every turn. One would think that the presidency was a competition between Drumpf and Obama if one heeded Drumpf. I truly don’t think that healing divisions is possible with the current Congress. It is past time to get back to the ideals expressed so eloquently by Abraham Lincoln at Gettysburg, “government of the people, by the people, for the people …” and that is the crux of what Obama is talking about.
NY Times — Some of what is spoken about is happening here as well. The BC provincial government through various health authorities is raising the qualification bar for nursing home care. This means that families are having to look after elders for as long as possible regardless of the family dynamics or situation. I know of one woman who had to quit her job to be home to look after her elderly father who has dementia. She also has teenage kids so gets squeezed from both ends. The loss of her income has certainly made balancing finances more of an issue. And the situation will only get worse as more and more baby boomers come on board. This is one reason, my mother being another, that I have chosen to work with New Vista Society (mum’s care home) and its CEO advocating for seniors and dementia patients.
Think Progress — Seems to me that Phil Montag shot himself in the foot. . . the kind of injury that is not covered by any health insurance.
Cartoon — They won the skirmish but indigenous peoples are still fighting the war for their rights.
Resist and Persist!!!!!
Yesterday was hot, but today was worse. It hit 36 C (97 F) this afternoon. While the house was respectable yesterday, I could really feel the heat and mugginess in the house this afternoon. The babes are not happy with the heat either. Monday is supposed to be a bit cooler. When I saw that picture of the splashing gorilla earlier, I wanted to jump in with him.
It was 40° here.
DK: I can fully understand why Obama wanted to send this message to Republicans, but no matter how heartfelt, well thought out, and ever so carefully phrased this message is, it will only help to uplift the spirit of liberals fighting TrumpCare. Most Republicans won’t even read it, only because HE, Obama, wrote it, and if they do it is only to recharge their anti-Obama batteries again. If the teachings of a far more illustrious antecessor named Jezus can’t touch these greedy politicians, the words of that black man that used to be in the White House and whom they hated so much won’t change their minds either.
NYT: Our previous governments were notorious for cuts too, and they made it a lot harder to qualify to go into nursing home care too, with the excuse it is good that the elderly stay at home as long as possible – which it is – but by cutting down on their professional aid and making it the problem of their family, friends and neighbors. We needed to become a more caring community, was the messages. But they never went as far as to throw seniors out of their nursing homes because they could no longer afford to live there. And nobody ever had to die because they had no health insurance or too little coverage. Now the economy is slowly climbing back on its feet the amount of money spent on care is slowly increasing again too.
TP: The Nebraska Democratic party did the right thing by removing Montag from office for his callous and hateful remark. Let’s be honest, these thoughts may have crossed more Democratic minds than just Montag’s, which isn’t surprising considering how much hate has poured out of Scalise himself and out of his fellow Republicans. But then Democrats get a grip on themselves, because that’s what true Democrats do and if you have any position within the Party you burry those thoughts even quicker and keep your mouth, Twitter or Facebook shut. Montag had no business being a Democratic official, good riddance.
Cartoon: “Once in a long while, the good guys win one”, so true. But I will not see any parallels with the Democrats in it, that would be too demoralizing knowing what happened to indigenous Americans before and after that win.
Thanks all. Pooped hugs.