It’s a very busy day. Store to Door delivered groceries, which I unpacked and put away. I got a haircut. I was so shaggy that I’m temped to act like a Sheeple and say BA-A-A-A-A-A! Wendy is coming this evening to de-stink the TomCat and help with chores. Carrie’s husband Barry is improving. His kidneys are working again.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 3:43 (average 5:09). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From YouTube (Parody Project Channel): STORMY (DANIELS) – A parody of "Stormy"
I wonder if Stormy rained on Putin’s Piddle Puppet. RESIST!!
From Washington Post: Rep. Patrick Meehan (R-Pa.) sought to defend himself against an accusation of sexual harassment Tuesday, saying he “developed an affection” for a decades-younger staffer he considered his “soul mate” but never sought a romantic or sexual relationship with her.
I don’t buy it. The only souls Republican Congress critters have are the souls they are: ass-souls! RESIST!!
From Think Progress: There’s never been a ballot measure asking voters to weigh funding for the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) Medicaid expansion until Oregon’s. On Tuesday, voters statewide were asked to decide whether to keep taxing insurance companies and hospitals to pay for health insurance or tell the state legislature to return to the drawing board and think of something else. They chose the former.
Expanding Medicaid coverage to all people living in poverty has been a decades-long priority for Oregon. But covering everyone — not just pregnant women, kids, seniors, and adults with disabilities — who lives 100 percent below the federal poverty level led to some budget setbacks over the years. So when the federal government agreed to pay for 100 percent of the costs associated, at least for a few years, Oregon opted to further expand Medicaid coverage to people living up to 138 percent of poverty.
Now 94 percent of Oregonians have health insurance — one of the nation’s highest insured rates.
Last year, states needed to start pitching in financially; per the health law, the federal government’s financial share fell to 95 percent in 2017 and will fall to 90 percent by 2020. How Oregon intends to pay for its share is on Tuesday’s ballot.
By voting yes to Measure 101, voters upheld temporary taxes passed by the state legislature and okay-ed by the governor last year. (Three Republican state legislators who opposed the taxes petitioned to get the bill on the ballot.) The 1.5 percent tax on some insurers and managed care organizations and 0.7 percent tax on large hospitals would raise anywhere between $210 to $320 million over the next two years. (Due to a federal labor law, states can’t tax self-insured plans.) The measure also raises revenue for the state’s reinsurance program, which helps lower premiums for plans offered on the Obamacare marketplace.
This actually costs me money, because the Insurance Network, Providence, that offers my Medicare Advantage plan is one paying the tax, and my income is barely above the level required for the benefit. Nevertheless, I was proud to vote for it. Oregon leads the way! RESIST!!
Cartoon:
8 Responses to “Open Thread – 1/24/2018”
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“Stormy” parody: Well done and clever. Not laugh-your-arse-off funny, but made me smile.
WP: Patrick Meehan should form a club with Roy Moore – and a few others.
TP: If they can do it in Oregon, they can do it everywhere! And if you’re worried about funding, we could take some away from the obscenely bloated “Defense” budget.
Cartoon: Rethuglican “Jesus” is, in reality, Mammon.
4:04 I’m not going to worry, I know you don’t eat your cousins.
If you were as shaggy as a Norwegian Forest Cat, no wonder you are sweltering! I hope the cut helps.
I share this only because someone commenting on it pointed out that, if this is so, then bears are dog sasquatches.
PP – Oh, beautifully done. Beautifully lyricized and beautifully executed. I wonder whether she has seen it and what she thinks! (I am confident he hasn’t and won’t see it.) Seriously, I doubt that Eric Schneiderman would bother with charges on this, unless all the other crimes are unprovable, which I also doubt.
WaPo – A slightly different form of male projection. Assuming that if you, a man, have feelings for a woman, she automatically feels the same about you. I’m sure she would barf at the thought of being a “soul mate” of his.
TP – Yes. Sometimes one just has to vote for the right thing, even if it will cost one some money. Something Republicans will NEVER understand. Kudos to Oregon and to you.
Cartoon – We? Republican Supply-Side Jesus and the mouse in his pocket?
Dawg mermaids look like a fine kitty snack!!
PP: Oh, Stormy!! Don the Con wants a re-play!! lol
WP: Oh, ick !!!
TP: Y’all are leading the way!! Good for you, and Kudos to your state!
Cartoon: Of course YOU do!! and then some.
HI WWWendy!! Hope that you have a relaxing evening, take care, and Thanks, Tom.
*Just got a text (poll) from Beto, that shows he is within single digits of Ted Cruz!!! YAY!!!
WWWendy said, “Hi Pat!”
PP: Don’t you just love it when good old songs come back, with a role to play?
WaPo: When do these scumb**gs lie? When their _____s are open! This good old boy is up for re-election in November, maybe he’ll get his retirement papers?
TP: Oregon rocks!
‘Toon: Yes they do, and Charles Koch has paid Lyin’ Ryan handsomely for his work on that promise.
PP:
“You wondered why you did it all. We wondered why we did it too…” I’m afraid this lament is going to be heard coming from America for a while yet.
WP: Oh, I’m sure Mr. Meehan, that all Republican Representatives use taxpayer dollars to settle a slight difference of opinion with their decades younger female soul-mate aids.
TP: You have every right to be proud, TomCat. By taxing health-insurers and large (profitable) hospitals, which will pass on this tax to their clients in a slight raise of the costs of their healthcare, Oregon is making it possible to give (almost) all Oregonians healthcare, including all the poor and needy. Sounds very Socialistic to me, TomCat
and is (only) slightly more cumbersome then the alternative: Single Payer Healthcare.
Cartoon: But only if they’re paid to do so.
I’m so glad I’ve taught my cats to shed so I don’t have to take them for a haircut. They won’t sit still long enough:
Thanks all. Pooped Hugs!