Those Pictures from Facebook: Going Wild from Obamacare

This photo is from UpWorthy, shared on Facebook by the hundreds including Democrats.com, in the wake of Obamacare, also known as the Affordable Care Act, being narrowly upheld by the Supreme Court last week (Courtesy: Facebook.com)

Had three teeth pulled today at the WDA “Mission of Mercy” clinic, so I am finding that writing my requests is much easier than talking out loud…or suppressing my levity.  When it comes to the latter, I am laughing at those ‘Baggers in hysterics who now want to go to Canada (or in the case of that fat flounder Rush Limbaugh who wants to self-deport to Costa Rica) to get away from Obama and his Obamacare.  I got news for you ‘Baggers–both countries have socialized medicine and it is nothing like Obamacare.   And the Canadians do not want your sorry, right-wing asses—they are laughing their asses off too at your presumption.  Jonathan Kay over at the National Post is wondering why in hell these Americans would want to bolt for the supposedly uncivilized climes of the frozen North.

Here in Canada, even conservatives gave up the Ron Paul position decades ago. Yes, we want more private options, and an end to the North Korean-style public monopoly mentality. But not a single mainstream politician in this country demands an end to universal health care. Even back in the day of Tommy Douglas, Canada never had the sort of culture war over universal health care that the United States is now witnessing. The decision to provide care to all citizens was then seen as a policy issue; it did not represent an existential national-identity trauma, as Obamacare has become south of the border.

Canadians lament that they have few national myths. But as the health-care debate shows, an absence of myths makes policy-making easier. In the United States, where the Founding Fathers are treated as secular saints, where many “originalist” judges are trapped in a 1789-era reading of the Constitution, and where conservatives such as Ron Paul still imagine a country of frontier yeomen who can get their health care from neighbours and local well-wishers, Obamacare became a proxy for a larger and more vexing question: Can Americans still afford to entertain 18th-century political reveries when 50-million of their countrymen lack health insurance in the world of 2012?

Some of these little cards are funny as hell, and remind me of a postcard series I used to purchase during the Seventies at head shops. I posted yet another one from California’s Courage Campaign on my Facebook page. Yeah, the Russians ain’t gonna get us in this case either (Courtesy: Facebook)

Those who have to stay here out of loyalty to country—or out of common sense finally kicking in—will find that Obamacare is not going to be the toothache they think that it is.  Click on the poster if you like to find out how.  This is from Keith Olbermann‘s Fan Page via God Bless the President of the United States.

Here’s the latest:

Thursday, June 21, 2012

Over 12 Million Consumers to Benefit from $1.1 Billion in Rebates from Health Reform Law

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced final refund amounts that health insurers must reimburse consumers for spending too much of premiums on overhead. Insurers across the nation will now rebate $1.1 billion to 12.8 million Americans with the average family receiving a $151 back from insurers as a result of the Affordable Care Act.

“This is exciting news for families struggling with rising health insurance costs” said DeAnn Friedholm, Director of health reform at Consumers Union, the policy and advocacy division of Consumer Reports. “Because of the health reform law, consumers now are actually getting money back from insurance companies who spent too much money on overhead.”

Consumers Union produced a map listing companies that anticipate owing rebates based on earlier estimates reported by insurers. Final rebate numbers by insurer may vary. The map and list of insurers is available at http://yourhealthsecurity.org/health-insurance-refund-map.

Contact: David Butler, or Kara Kelber, 202-462-6262.

I like “Game of Thrones” like anyone else, so this little post starring Sean Bean made me laugh out loud. Nothing like a Supreme Court decision to make some people wise up real fast; but Professor in Chief Obama is still the expert.  This is from Global Secular Humanist Movement  (Courtesy: Facebook)

If you would like to finally read the Affordable Care Act word for word, instead of listening to the warmed-over hearsay, dribble, fear-mongering, haranguing radio hosts, Faux Noise,  and outright hysterics, here it is. 

As a progressive, I see this as not an end but a beginning.  The Act can be revised over the years to mean much more.  It’s not single payer and it is not socialized medicine, but it is a start.  And in light of my having to go rely on the charity of dentists and nurses today, much needed and wanted.

Below, this poster came from the blog, Addicting Info.

Know what I think?  John Roberts, the Chief Justice, in siding with the liberal wing of the Supreme Court, has not turned into this era’s Earl Warren.  Nor has he been affected by his medications, as some rancorous right-wing radio hosts have been cruelly alleging.  Rather, I believe he saw that the right-ward turn of the Court would boomerang on his legacy, and that he sees himself as some kind of latter-day Rehnquist, which is saying a lot.  Be that as it may, Roberts put the brakes on some bullsh*t.  (Too bad that he didn’t feel the same way about Citizens United.)  And I see the tax as more of a penalty when you do not get health insurance.

Meanwhile, here are some more reactions from Facebook below.

This one above came from I Will Vote for Obama in 2012.   Obamacare actually came from the Massachusetts model set up by Mitt Romney when he was governor.  Had the Affordable Care Act been rescinded last week, the Massachusetts plan might also have been rescinded as well, causing chaos and uncertainty there, as some were portending (Atty. Gen. Martha Coakley says no).  Bad enough Romney was unpopular when he left the statehouse and still is, but the hate would have been on in his former state had the Supremes’ ruling gone the other way.

This one is pretty choice too, slapping down Speaker Boehner, he of the orange skin and supposedly perpetual tan.  This one came from the blog Veracity Stew.

And here’s another from Democrats.com, at the very moment news came to the Republican-led (and obstructionist) House of Representatives that Obamacare had been upheld:

Boehner didn’t look as if he was going to cry, but this will do very well.

Meanwhile, this photo is wonderful, harking back to the iconic “Dewey Defeats Truman” headline from the Chicago Tribune in 1948 which was also wrong, wrong, wrong.  Gary He, product director at Insider Images, was the one who superimposed Obama’s smiling mug over that of the no-nonsense, “the buck stops here” successor to Franklin Roosevelt.  The supine, corporate media took its cues from Fox News as always, reporting that the Affordable Care Act had been declared unconstitutional, and as a result, they dug themselves in wider and deeper as far as accuracy and true, factual  reporting is concerned among the populace.  Media critics were not surprised, but there has been some chest-beating and so-called soul searching as to whether journalism is dead after all among some apologists.  Frankly, mainstream journalism that reports the facts (and not opinion or advocacy) has been moribund for quite some time, serving the powers that are and whipping up or manufacturing consent to a whole slew of issues from war to global warming.  After all of this embarrassment has died down, the media will continue on this destructive path until this ugly time in the history of our Republic is officially over.  But don’t say that they haven’t been warned, if not once, then hundreds of times.

Related articles

• Our Failed Fourth Estate is to Blame for Obamacare Disconnect (crooksandliars.com)
• What Does the Supreme Court Ruling on Obamacare Ruling Mean for Your Vagina? [Vagina] (jezebel.com)
• It’s Alive! Obamacare: the Frankenstein Monster with a Heart (themoderatevoice.com)
• Governors: No Obamacare for Florida and Louisiana (rawstory.com)
• Obamacare: How Does It Really Affect You? (blackdoctor.org)
• The Obama Truth Team Tipsheet (theobamacrat.com)

~ by blksista on July 1, 2012.