Senate Health Care: John McCain is busy

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John McCain has a good heath care plan, and if has his way, you won’t.

The Senator most often accredited for thinking for himself (that’s a lie) will vote with Russian agent Donald Trump and the rest of the Republicans to take away Obama care. The moment he gets a chance.

However, he can’t right now because he is indisposed, recovering form surgery.

We at Greg Laden’s Blog wish Senator McCain a speedy recovery and hope he is well. But we also urge him to think about his privilege and not take access to the sort of health care he has from other Americans.

Speaking of the Russians, The Looking Glass War, the fourth George Smiley novel by John le Carré, in Kindle form, is currently and temporarily two bucks. Just thought you might like to add that to your collection.

Have you read the breakthrough novel of the year? When you are done with that, try:

In Search of Sungudogo by Greg Laden, now in Kindle or Paperback
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47 thoughts on “Senate Health Care: John McCain is busy

  1. Must admit my first thought when I heard the reason given for the delay in the vote was “Oh, the irony!”. My second thought was “GOP’s double standards”.

  2. They’ve already taken access to the health care he has away from other Americans. Congress was supposed to be on the exchanges. Then they declared themselves to be a small business and took themselves off the exchange.

  3. McCain’s been polishing his fake maverick image so long you’d think he’d have worn right through the brass by now. I wonder what the Senate and House would look like if there was a mandatory 75 year retirement age….

    Off topic, I’d be interested to see your (GL) take on the latest Minneaopolis police shooting. A middle-aged white woman from Austalia in her pajamas fatally shot outside her home while talking to two officers about a reported suspicious incident she or her husband had called in… both officers had their body cams turned off and the car camera recorded nothing. Most of the usual excuses can’t be rolled out and used in this case.

  4. MikeN, Congress is not and never was exempt from the Affordable Care Act. Before it took effect they bought insurance from a program that was used as a model for the exchanges.

    But: the final ACA bill included this language.

    the only health plans that the Federal Government may make available to Members of Congress and congressional staff with respect to their service as a Member of Congress or congressional staff shall be health plans that are — (I) created under this Act (or an amendment made by this Act); or (II) offered through an Exchange established under this Act.

    The notion that Congress excused themselves from ACA is simply another right wing line of crap.

  5. Magma, the media would like to jump to the usual narrative of racist white cops kill black person, but here it is reversed. So Washington Post instead makes it all about gun control since Australia confiscated all the guns. That it was a police officer that did the shooting should be relevant, but then there would be nothing for them to report.

  6. #5 MikeN “Magma, the media would like to jump to the usual narrative of racist white cops kill black person …”

    I’m puzzled by your comment. For example: Are you implying that no racist white cops have ever killed a black person? Or is it that such a thing should not be mentioned by the media even if it is a common occurrence?

  7. I am saying that the media is eager to report this narrative regardless of the facts of the case. If George Zimmermann were Jorge Mesa(his mother’s surname), you likely would have never heard of TrayVon Martin. Frequently the media reports this narrative then when the facts come out there is a ‘narrative collapse’. For example, ‘hands up don’t shoot’ is a lie. In the early 90s they caused massive rioting in LA by only showing part of the tape of Rodney King’s beating by cops.
    They edited out Zimmermann’s call to the police, changing
    ‘He looks like he’s up to no good.’
    ‘Can you tell us what race he is, white, black, hispanic?’
    ‘He looks black.’
    to
    ‘He looks like he’s up to no good. He looks black.’

  8. ” but here it is reversed”

    So only white people should have their guns controlled. “mike”???

    ” That it was a police officer that did the shooting should be relevant”

    It is, you foetid pile of dingos kidneys. In every story I’ve read about it, moron.

  9. ” If George Zimmermann were Jorge Mesa”

    He wasn’t. He made a fake narrative so he could kill a black man for being dangerously negro in his presence. And you white racist fucks believed him.

  10. You’re eager to make every white man non racist, aren’t you, “mike”.

    And loathe the media for not letting you keep your protective unreality around you.

    Why are you such a delicate snowflake, “mike”?

  11. “Frequently the media reports this narrative then when the facts come out there is a ‘narrative collapse’. ”

    Really? WHERE?

    “by only showing part of the tape ”

    Uh, first, that is only about part of the tape itself, dickhead, so you’re fake too. Second,the police continuously give out a fake claim until tape shows them lying their asses off. And in the current case, despite all the laws requiring them be on, neither cop has working bodycam footage. The destruction of evidence should be, as it is with ordinary people, considered evidence of guilt.

    “They edited out Zimmermann’s call to the police,”

    Which would be wrong why? All he says is what he wants to be believed, it’s no more valid than a statement without evidence.

  12. Australian gun control is irrelevant when it’s a cop that did the shooting. Police in Australia have guns too.

  13. Do you really love in a different reality mikeN? You line about guns bring confiscated in Australia isn’t true, and you neglect the fact that Zimmerman was told by 911 to stop following Martin. He chose to confront him and it ended badly

  14. Dean the exact nature of Australian gun control is irrelevant to my point- it was the Post that brought Australian gun control into a story about a police shooting. Unless Australian police don’t have guns this is a meaningless detail for the Post to include.

    Martin attacked Zimmerman. Zimmermann did as he was told and went back to his truck. By this time, Martin had been convinced by his girlfriend who he was talking to on the phone that Zimmerman was a gay predator after him and his brother and decided to kill him. This gay detail went unnoticed for a long time because people(including me) thought the girlfriend’s testimony was saying ‘cracker’ when it was ‘ass cracker’ which I have never heard before.

  15. “Dean the exact nature of Australian gun control is irrelevant to my point-”

    Then your point was irrelevant to the subject of gun control, and it was you trying to shoehorn it in there.

    “Martin attacked Zimmerman.”

    Lie.

  16. “Martin had been convinced by his girlfriend who he was talking to on the phone that Zimmerman was a gay predator after him and his brother and decided to kill him. ”

    That was a big line on the racist sites (Limbaugh, national review, breitbar, blaze, etc…) but it was their misrepresentation of her comment: her testimony was that she told Martin to run from him, not attack him.

    You don’t follow any real news sources do you?

  17. I find it remarkable that MikeN lets his right wing views cloud his judgment. Pretty well anywhere else in the developed world the Zimmerman-Martin incident would never have happened. Only in gun-happy USA would it not only occur but would this blatant murder be condoned. Zimmerman was clearly looking for a confrontation. He had his gun and clearly felt empowered by it. So he followed Martin until a confrontation was inevitable. If he had mindedhis own damned business Martin would be alive today and this sordid event would have happened.

  18. I never said she told him to attack. Only that she suggested Zimmerman was gay. This suggestion set off TrayVon.

  19. And you never said that your “information” was from horrendously unreliable sources, “mike”. You also never said that you have not investigated the facts yourself to see if your sources of “information” were correct.

    You never said that Zimmerman stalked Martin after getting his gun. Nor that Zimmerman murdered Martin.

    There’s a whole heap of what you didn’t say.

    But what you DID say meant Martin’s girlfriend told him to meat Zimmerman because he was gay.

  20. @ MikeN

    Martin attacked Zimmerman. Zimmermann did as he was told and went back to his truck.

    Revisionist*, much?
    Yes Martin did, but the proper term is “stand your ground”. Oh, but that only applies if you are a white Yankee.
    And no, Zimmerman didn’t. He may have been on his way back, but he was still happy to confront Martin.
    Martin confronted Zimmerman head-on. And then, the situation escalated into physical assault and point blank shot.

    Since you are talking about stuff left out of the police tape, you forget the part where Zimmerman said, right after the “he is black” part, “these [redacted], they always get away.”.
    (source – Wikipedia, among other places)
    What did Zimmermann meant by this? Well, his home was burglarized by two Black men a few weeks before the shooting, while his then-girlfriend and child were hiding on the second floor. The two criminals fled once they realized that policemen were on their way.
    This time, Zimmermann made sure the frightening Black teen didn’t escape.

    *I’m French. Look up who we reserve this term for.

  21. Correction, looking at news reports, the girlfriend testified that Martin said ‘creepy ass cracker'(after first saying ‘creepy, white’), and she suggested to Martin that Zimmerman was a rapist.

  22. “March 13, 2012 – Sanford Police Department’s homicide detective Christopher Serino recommends Zimmerman be charged with manslaughter. Zimmerman “failed to identify himself” as a concerned citizen or neighborhood watch member on two occasions that night. Serino reports that he thought Zimmerman’s head injuries were “marginally consistent with a life-threatening episode, as described by him, during which neither a deadly weapon nor deadly force were deployed by Trayvon Martin.”

    “Authorities release seven 911 calls from the night of the shooting. In one of the 911 recordings, Zimmerman, against the advice of the 911 dispatcher, follows Martin.”

    Zimmerman did not return to his car, he followed Martin. Reality is not on your side.

  23. Ah, and how was that suggested? There’s nothing in “creepy-ass cracker” (you know, like a creepy white dude stalking you) that says “rapist”, but maybe you know more about what crackers do, “mike” to know this.

    Because as far as I can see, “rapist” is only what you are suggesting.

  24. Then do not pass on without having checked. Doing what you did just wastes everyone else’s time and you just turn about and say “Don’t shoot the messenger!!!”.

    But you stated it as if it were true and you believed it.

    Next time at the very least you have to say “I don’t believe this report” first.

  25. Wow you ever contribute anything. Martin said to girlfriend ‘creepy ass cracker’ according to girlfriend. Girlfriend said she told Martin she thought he was a rapist. This was her testimony in court. It is possible she made the whole thing up.

  26. “Wow you ever contribute anything. ”

    Thank you, I will ever contribute.

    ” Girlfriend said she told Martin she thought he was a rapist”

    But no quote of her saying that. And it appears I was giving your idiotic claims more credit than they were due, “mike”, since the problem now is not MERELY that “cracker-ass creep” doesn’t say “rapist”, but no actual words from the girlfriend were made.

    So, this claim of her calling Zimmerman a rapist (or gay, or whatever your made up bullshit is now or next) was entirely a fiction and you’re liable to just complain that it was from “some news source” and that we should not blame you for talking such bollocks.

    Will you ever contribute something from a working adult mind, “mike”?

  27. “Dean the Sentinel says ”

    Did you check them? if not, then you have ZERO REASON to accept one over the other.

    As someone who preens themselves on being a skeptic despite everyone else pointing out the fallacy in this belief of yours, you should be leaping at the chance to check up who has the right story.

    Oh, and whining “But THEY said it!!!!” merely is showing that you’re credulous of what THEY said. Not that you were right to make the claim. YOU SHOULD INVESTIGATE FIRST.

    Dumbass.

  28. I hope that McCain finds himself running over the lifetime or annual cap of his insurance policy because of his chemotherapy costs for his brain cancer.

    Not because I wish him ill, but because I wish he find out what it feels like when you haven;t enough money to save your life under the republican ideas of a “free market” for healthcare.

    It’s sure as shit he’ll not be aware of it by means of *empathy*.

  29. If american police could not shoot the people who call them in the first place, that would be great. Thankyou.

  30. Dean, your transcript looks like it came from CNN’s Fast Facts. The area is a T shape, his truck is at one end. From the call, Zimmerman went towards the other end where the gate is while Martin went down the T towards his dad’s house. Killing happened at the intersection, consistent with Zimmerman going back to his truck while Martin doubles back rather than going home.

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/16/trayvon-martin-911-audio-_n_1354909.html

    It appears the ‘witness’ that says Zimmerman followed Martin is the last one, as she’s the only one who says any events before ‘someone was screaming help help help’. She says she saw them talking, nothing about following as near as I can tell.

  31. Dean, #5, Congress’s health care is coming from SHOP, the small business health options program, which is for businesses with less than 50 employees.

  32. Under the Affordable Care Act, members of the U.S. House of Representatives, the Senate and their office staffs who want employer coverage generally have to buy it on the health insurance exchange. Before the ACA passed in 2010, they were eligible to be covered under the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program. (People working for congressional committees who are not on a member’s office staff may still be covered under FEHBP.)
    The members of Congress and their staffs choose from among 57 gold plans from four insurers sold on the DC Health Link’s small business marketplace this year.
    Approximately 11,000 are enrolled, according to Adam Hudson, a spokesperson for the exchange. The government pays about three-quarters of the cost of the premium, and workers pay the rest. They aren’t eligible for federal tax credits that reduce the size of insurance premiums.
    For some other members of Congress, declining exchange coverage was a political statement.
    “There are several who, because of animus to Obamacare, rejected the offer of coverage, and either buy on their own or get it through a spouse,” said Sabrina Corlette, a research professor at Georgetown University’s Center on Health Insurance Reforms.
    Proposed bills to replace the ACA don’t affect this provision of the law, said Timothy Jost, a professor emeritus of law at Washington and Lee University School of Law in Lexington, Va., who has written widely on the regulation of health care and its reform.

    For the other one: police transcripts from final investigstions.

  33. “Dean, your transcript looks like it came from CNN’s Fast Facts”

    An odd accusation given your “Well, that’ what this site said” defences.

  34. “(People working for congressional committees who are not on a member’s office staff may still be covered under FEHBP.)”

    So, maybe, like, spouses of senators or their family members? Tell me, does FEHBP include a spouse or family member from being included? ‘cos if so, a Senator with a wife who works for a congressional comittee could be covered by their wife’s insurance and not have to use any purchased plan.

  35. Dean, you repeated what I said. Congress is not a small business, so why are they buying health insurance from the small business exchange? They gave themselves a special exemption. Well more accurately, OPM gave it to them illegally.

  36. No, he quoted the current situation from a reliable source.

    Is your complaint that you and dean agree on something? Maybe you can show us where dean said you were wrong so we can see if your post at 44 is at all relevant to dean’s post at 41

  37. We at Greg Laden’s Blog wish Senator McCain a speedy recovery and hope he is well. But we also urge him to think about his privilege and not take access to the sort of health care he has from other Americans.

    McCain voted against the move, according to news reports.

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