alternate route

I'm surprised I was brought to such a vituperous state by the conclusion of my previous entry. I've always had a kind of naive, immediate reaction to excremental obscenity. I seldom use it and am usually put off by others' use.

I might have rewritten the post, but I really liked the structure (spontaneously created) of employing the timeworn "whore" metaphor, withdrawing it, and promptly comparing our political leaders to something almost universally accepted as loathsome, foul.

You see what kind of person I am? I take account of the possibility that some human culture exists in which shit is not the very bottom of existence, and even leave a little space to ease the pain of the passing scatophile. And I still couldn't convince myself it was over the top to compare our ruling class to shit.

Firedoglake post of the day: Alternate route to calamity.

fiasco

The road ahead, as I dread it:

The first of the "health care reforms" kick in. Most of these apply to the already insured or children of the already insured. The pharminsurance folks will be undermining these bureaucratically and via government puppets, while claiming that the new rules justify any premium increase they declare. Healthbiz stock will continue to rise in value, as it has through every single step of the "health care debate."

Meanwhile the economy, at best, stagnates. Mainstream consensus is little or zero growth in employment for the next year, and since the current administration is part of that consensus, wow, they're right. So when the "Health Care: One Year Later" stories come around, everybody will be just a bit (or a whole lot more) miserable in general, and the great Democratic Party triumph will appear to be even weenier than it is.

By that time, maybe, the Dems will realize that even if they offer the same services to commerce as the Repubs, money would rather have the old, skilled whores than the young types who might drift from the repertoire. Result: the young whores will continue to try to outsuck the old ones, the old ones will continue to have the fanciest furnishings in the whorehouse, and management will prosper all the same.

Nothing here intended against whores, or sucking. Just a handy metaphor. Try a different one.

If the Dems are just fresher turds than the Repubs, why should I care? The Repubs will still be the worst, more disease-riddled, laden with fat maggots. The Dems seem to be happy polishing up their pile of shit, but the Repubs want to mash theirs into every corner of the world, private, public, national, international, orbital.

I guess that's enough shit for the day.

BIBMIPPA...

...is short for what Gregg Levine at Firedoglake calls the Big Insurance Bailout and Medical Industries Profit Protection Act of 2010. He notes:

"If BIBMIPPA doesn’t sound good to you, it shouldn’t. This bill will not provide universal coverage, it will not provide universal access, it will not significantly bend the cost curve, it will not prevent draconian escalations in premiums or out-of-pocket expenses, and, upon signing into law, it will not do anything at all for the large majority of the 48 million uninsured for another four years.

"What it will do is mandate an expansion of the customer pool for private insurance. What it will do is funnel taxpayer dollars into the coffers of the lobbying arms AHIP, PhRMA, and the various private hospital associations. What it will do is enrich and entrench the current powers-that-be at the expense of middleclass and poorer working Americans.

"What it will do is make future efforts at reform much, much harder."

Firedoglake is now my one, essential, politics and news blog. I was surprised to see how often I linked to stories at Salon over the last couple of weeks. But then I realized that was because almost every post at Firedoglake was newsworthy and postable. It is the ground against which I check my current understanding of the USA.

gospel

PLEASE DON'T POISON ME
(words: Brother Michael Rosenthal; music: traditional)

refrain:
Don't poison,
don't poison,
don't poison poison poison,
please don't poison me.
Don't poison,
don't poison,
don't poison poison poison,
please, don't you poison me.

verse:
Don't put arsenic in my jelly,
cause it really hurts my belly,
don't poison, don't poison me.
(repeat)

(refrain)

Don't fill my jujubes with antifreeze,
cause it makes me wobbly in the knees,
don't poison, don't poison me.
(repeat)

(refrain)

Don't put cyanide in my latte,
cause it makes my skin all spotty,
don't poison, don't poison me.
(repeat)

(refrain)

Don't stick my cranium with uranium,
it might make me go insanium,
don't poison, don't poison me.
(repeat)

(refrain)

Spare me from formaldehyde,
from homicide and suicide.
Don't poison, please don't poison me.

(refrain)

________________________________
Gospel music every Sunday morning
from 8-10am, WKCR 89.9FM.

health

Something's happening today that's supposed to mean something. This health care summit between Obama and the Republicans. I just can't get interested. The only thing that interests me is what's in the bill that will eventually pass - or fail to pass - Congress. And I have no reason to think that this bill will fix anything in any meaningful way.
I believe the only change that will improve access to health care is a public option or the opening up of Medicare. Anything less is just more blah di blah.
This whole process has been so comprehensively disheartening that I have to remind myself that even if the politicos defy their corporate masters and come up with something that will actually make health care affordable and accessible, the anti-choice folks are just salivating to put the kibosh on it.
If whatever wretched compromise that limps to O's desk includes a mandate that will punish people who refuse to give money to the insulting, inhumane, dishonest health insurance industry - people who would rather risk sickness or death than to pay for the privilege of being abused - even people who can't afford to pay for the privilege of being abused - then I think the result will be to set fires on the right and on the left in this country that will be catastrophic if they burn and calamitous if they are extinguished.
My personal inclinations have become apocalyptic. Rayne over at Firedoglake has a good post urging progressives to increase efforts to steer and take over the Democratic Party. I don't think that's possible any more. The government is sick.

added later: What this country needs is a more fearful ruling class.