The Damn Thing Will Not Go Away

Vietnam.  When I hear "it" I flinch a little every time.

When I was a kid, I read and viewed every documentary on WWII.  I knew early that an amazing thing had happened.   World War II was a "good" war.  I thought all wars were like WWII.  

 Like many youngsters I considered WWII a long ago war, even though I was born two years after it ended.  But the veterans of WWII were heroes, they had stopped fascism.  Patriotism was solidified around the "good war".  

II graduated in 1965 from high school, headed to Stanford with a football scholarship, any boy's dream, while "it" was building.

In 1965 "it" was fairly popular.  The Army was involved, but only with "advisors", the draft was still at peacetime levels.

I met a guy named Romney my first year at Stanford.  He even went to the Quad, and carried a sign supporting the war.  HIs Dad was going to run for President so he supported the war.  At the time, so did most everyone else.  

Not much was said, nobody really opposed "it" in those days.  Most didn't really even know where "it" was.

As 1965 dragged on, Lyndon Johnson virtually declared war, and the draft increased remarkably.  College deferments were suddenly at risk.  The Administration decided to fight the war with draftees, and not rely on the reserves as had occurred in the "police action" in Korea.  

Johnson was aware of whole towns that had their young men wiped out, when National Guard and Reserve units were rushed to the front in Korea, poorly trained, and were consumed.  

Many joined the Reserves after WWII, and went to meetings with no basic training requirement.  When they were activated, they went to Korea with NO training at all.  Many didn't even know how to load the weapons they were hastily given.  The reserves in Korea, at the beginning, were a disaster.

With this legacy, and for political reasons, the "ready reserve" was not called up, and the draft was used.

Johnson thought it was the safest political decision.  Fight a marginally popular war with draftees?  Limiting the "tour" to one year only, Johnson hoped would limit the exposure to combat and keep the war popular.  

In retrospect it was incredibly stupid, but in 1965 "it" ran decision making.  As with most wars, old politicians made decisions for young men.  

And one of those decisions put college deferments squarely on target.  Married men couldn't go.  The reserves couldn't go.  Thousands of troops needed to be in Korea, Japan, and Germany, not withstanding the millions needed to man the ready response in the United States to the Soviet "threat" could not be spared.  

So, Johnson used the draft.  

The National Draft Test was thought up, all underclassmen had to take it, and those in the lowest percentile would lose their deferment.

And I was at Stanford, for God's sake. I was competing with 4.07 GPAs...

At the last minute, realizing the unfairness of this, Johnson changed his mind.  College deferments were kept.

So the draft fell on the poor, the high school graduates, the unmarried, and minorities.  

It wasn't until after the war, that it dawned on us that "it" was the first war America fought with integrated combat units.  So, after 200 years, the Army fought with African-Americans next to Dixiecrats; its a wonder anybody survived!

Married with children got men out of the draft all the way through the war.  Many marriages began earlier than expected, or unexpected.  Have a baby, stay out of "it".  The baby population boomed.  

And the resistance began quickly, because the academic community at first, and everyone later, questioned our mission in Vietnam.  

It became evident early that Vietnam was a Nationalist War against colonialism, not a war to contain Communism.  The Soviets aided the North Vietnamese too be sure, but China, a natural enemy of Vietnam, did not.  So the mission was clouded very early.  "It" had no clear mission.

It was not even as clear as Korea, which was the "forgotten war" because the mission there was not that evident either.  But at least America had the United Nations support in Korea.  In "it" America was basically alone.  

In short, within the time I was an undergraduate at Stanford, the country swung from support of the war to overwhelming opposition.

And meanwhile the draft took the uneducated, the poor or those who just were plain unlucky.  And the casualty numbers mounted.  The battles intensified.  The percentage of combat deaths were mostly made up of draftees; the tool rose from 25 a week to 250.  

The injured were those who didn't have a clue why they were in "it".  

Meanwhile, back home returning veterans, who spent only 12 months in "it" were greeted as monsters, as the bad guys.

And, in a sense they were; they were being used to fight an unjust and wrong war, and were being used by the politicians to take the bad publicity fall.  

 And then came Me Lai, and other slaughters were reported.   "It" seemed to not be capable of getting worse, and then it got worse.  Now,  the American G.I. image, who had saved Europe, were shown as baby killers.  

The draftee, trying to make it the twelve months, began rebelling, acting out in ways to insure their survival by "wasting" everything.  What little discipline the Army had over a reluctant soldier, broke down.

So, when in a fire fight, they didn't aim, they killed everything in front of them, villages, children, everything.  

To be fair, the Viet Cong purposefully hid in the civilian population, taking advantage of the standing orders to "win the hearts and minds" of the Vietnamese civilian population.  Many casualties were a product of hesitating in close quarters firefights, and getting hit, because kids were in the way.  It became evident to "waste" everything.  Soldiers began writing F.T.A. on their helmets, writing the number of days left "in country" on their backpacks and gear.  Many refused duty in the last months of their tour.  

The objective was not to win the war, the objective was to survive.

I remember a conversation with my father in law, a heavily decorated veteran of WWII and an career Army Officer.  He agreed with me that what finally ended "it" was the realization that the United States Army was about ready to fall apart in the early 1970s.  We either ended "it", or the Army would be a state of rebellion, while the Cold War still was in evidence.  

They were all "gooks" anyway.  American units were filled with inter-racial tensions.  The Army did not have time to work on blending whites and minorities together, they just threw everyone in together.  So, the Army turned in on itself, and in a firefight, turned in unison on the "gooks".  "Wasting" them was a common term, morality became as usual a casualty of war.  

This took place while America was carpet bombing North Vietnam, killing millions.  What was to stop a G.I., from wasting a village, killing women and children,when the Air Force was doing the same thing?  What difference, G.I.s said, does it make?  

What difference, in war anytime, does it make?

And  "it" happened to everyone.  The draft dodging young men, had decisions to make when their deferments ran out: get drafted and go into "it" (the green some called it), and kill, go to Canada, join another branch of the service that had less chance of going to Vietnam, join the National Guard or Reserves, that for some strange reason were being withheld from Vietnam.  

The "grunts", combat infantrymen, were not the only victims of "it".  The country began to implode in the late 60s, and then there was Kent State.

The choices were viable, there were many ways out of "it", and a majority of young men used them.

Why not, the war was wrong, and getting worse all the time?  A majority of Americans wanted us out from 1968 on, after the Tet Offensive.  

And the damage of "it" on all of us, especially on the survivors of the draftee Army in Vietnam, were tremendous.  

Post Traumatic Syndrome is at its worst in Insurgent Wars.  When you can't identify the enemy, and kill civilians by "mistake", it ruins people.  Regular war, with a defined enemy made up of enemy soldiers also ruins people, but killing civilians really ruins people.  

Most people are not born killers.  Killing is NOT a natural state of men.  "It" ruined lives, ruined innocent young men and women; sometimes for life.  

America looked up, and millions of combat veterans were returning from Vietnam seriously "f....up".  "It" then turned them on the rest of us, who had dodged going into the meat grinder, or who had simply joined a branch of the service that was safer. 

It didn't matter, a generation was torn asunder, veterans against everyone else, draft dodgers against pro-war, or anti-war veterans; World War II vets against the young, Republicans against Democrats, the country split in on itself.  

"It" killed the American Spirit.  

I learned, when I joined the National Guard toward the end of "it" that there were dozens of ways to get out of combat duty in "it" if you half way knew what you were doing.  

Many "veterans" of Vietnam are walking around today, who made that choice.  They are veterans, I am even considered one, but never came within a thousand miles of combat.

A whole generation of future  politicians, used deferments to avoid service completely, then turned around and became apologists for "it".  Dick Cheney comes to mind, a "hawk" who led us into Iraq, with no experience with "it".  We had a generation whose leaders, of both parties, who had not seen any service at all during the Vietnam era.  President Clinton used deferments to avoid "it".  President George W. Bush joined the reserves, using service to avoid "it" just like many other veterans did.  

The ones who did get snared in "it", the "sh..." many call it;  have lived over forty years now, with "it" plaguing them everyday.  Many have become homeless, many have committed suicide, many have simply lived out their lives, drinking too much, self medicating with drugs, angry, bewildered and above all ridden with guilt, waking up at night seeing the children lying beside the village they burned down,or the dogs dead in the street.

"It" was a national nightmare.  "It" was war, as naked and rotten as war always is.  In a sense, "it" may have taught us once again the undeniable brutality of war, and the irrationality of it. 

And then we went into Iraq, and did basically the same thing.   

Every Memorial Day, it comes home more to me.  The unbelievable tragedy of war, of "it".  Vietnam was the wrong war in the wrong time; it is America's most unpopular war.  It was not bad enough to end war.  "It" was a war of human tragedy.  

They all are.  

The Grand Stategy of the Grand Corrupt Party

So now the GOP shows its hand, or its axe if you will.  The strategy is to sabotage the Affordable Care Act, get voters all upset, and win the 2014 mid-terms.

Of course, there is no concern for  about 50 million Americans who have no health insurance currently, or the hundreds of thousands who can't get insurance because of pre-existing conditions, or the cabal of insurance companies who are ripping us all off, or the out of control pricing of medical care.

No, winning is everything.  The GOP has swung so far to the right, that they blindly lash out at a law that is based on solid conservative principles.  And, we actually can see how it is working in Massachusetts; but its former governor who ran for President dare not tout his achievement. 

This is nuts! 

But never mind, these fools are so obsessed with victory, that killing thousands of people doesn't mean anything.

Come to think of it, that was the strategy in Iraq as well.  There were no weapons of mass destruction remember, but what the heck, it got Bush re-elected, and killed over 500,000 people.

But never mind, killing thousands, yay millions, doesn't matter to the GOP, just win.

So, for the countless time, the House votes to repeal the Affordable Care Act, Insurance parasites scheme to raise rates to make it look bad, Republican governors refuse Medicaid Federal help, dooming their poor to death or endless suffering, and kill the middle class once and for all.

You see, medical expenses and insurance costs are what is wrecking the middle class right now.

So, all you con water carriers out there, tune up, tune in, and screw up your country once again.

Great patriotism on Memorial Day!

Why do they vote Democrat?

The recent election was a wake-up call for the GOP.  Apparently, they have gone back to sleep.

The numbers of Latinos and Asian Americans who voted democratic were in the high 70 percents.  In short, it was a landslide!  African Americans voted 98 percent Democratic.  

And, the GOP, is allegedly alarmed by this, since neither group (if you can call such diverse peoples a group) particularly are of the liberal persuasion.  Latinos for example are often social conservatives.

Nevertheless, they are voting solidly Democratic.

And now the Heritage Foundation.  

Jim Demint, a retired congressman and consummate racist, heads up this think tank.  The "Heritage Foundation" recently published articles that claimed immigration reform would be prohibitively expensive and implied it should stop.

Immigration reform, and Republicans'  unbelievable opposition to it, has been THE reason Latinos and Asian-Americans have veered away from the Republican Party.

Governor Wilson, in the 1990s, championed a successful initiative that denied benefits to illegal immigrants, and their children.  Most of this hated law has been repealed by the courts, and the cost to the California GOP has been huge.  

Whole swaths of California, once a conservative haven, have swung to the left, in reaction to the blatant racism and nativism of Wilson's efforts.

And now the Heritage Foundation.  

Ruben Navarrotte, a conservative Latino columnist, just published a piece that uncovers the "research" upon which the Heritage Foundation based its conclusion  that immigration reform was so expensive.

One of the "researchers" included as support for his conclusions part of his Phd work from no less than Harvard's Kennedy's School of Government,  that purports to prove that immigrants have lower IQs than native born citizens.  In fact, his "research" claims it will take several generations before immigrants can reach the same IQ levels than whites.

Setting aside how on earth the "researcher" could have passed his PHd's thesis with such a pile of crap, the fact that the Heritage Foundation used his "research" to support anti-immigration conclusions is  amazing.

In the dark days of nativism, early 1900s , "know nothings" and other lune tunes, used fledgling I.Q. test data to "prove" that racial minorities were inferior.  What the tests markedly missed was the impact of culture and language on I.Q. tests.  

In those early days of educational research, racism was pre-eminant.  The facts that I.Q. tests were always given in English, and had dozens of questions in them that required a White Anglo Saxon background, were intentionally done, to arrive at the conclusions that minorities were inferior.   

In short I.Q. tests were racist and were written to reach racist conclusions.  

All, I mean every one of those "research" conclusions have long ago been disproven.  Today's I.Q. tests are way different, still biased to some degree, but prove, over and over again, that RACE HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH I.Q.

A culturally and language based I.Q. test, if given to a White Anglo Protestant minimally Italian language proficient "genius",  would show more often than not, a minimal I.Q. if it were written in Italian.   If you don't know the language, you test as an idiot.  

There is NO evidence that I.Q. is tied to race.  I.Q. tests given that are culturally blind, and in an individual's native language are accurate, those that are not, are not...period...

I would assume the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, would denounce the Phd it gave that "researcher" who has since resigned from the Heritage Foundation.  How a racist pile of crap ever passed for a thesis is beyond me.

And the result for the immigrant community?    It is the same as it was in 1890, immigrants vote against the racist party in huge numbers.  

The Democratic Party, in 1964, literally purged institutional racists from its ranks, by passing the Civil Rights Act of 1964.  This law led to the southern strategy of Richard Nixon, that took the Dixiecrats out of the Democratic Party and folded them into the Republican Party.

Now, the Democratic Party is not perfect for sure.  But it did elect the first African American President, by nominating him fair and square in a highly competitive primary race, and then re-elected him.  

This is huge in American History, and has meant a migration of immigrant groups into the Democratic fold.  

The GOP?  Well, racism abounds in its membership.  Now, not all Republicans are racist, but appearances are everything.  And Jim Demint IS racist, and so evidently is the Heritage Foundation.  How else could they have hired that bigoted researcher?  How else could it oppose immigration reform based on racist "research"?  

Today, these racist, bigoted, blind and stupid groups have led the party of Lincoln into minority status in the populated areas of the United States.  Only the provincial biased, and land mass counting more than people bias of the U.S. Constitution, keeps the GOP in the game politically in the United States.

If you look at an electoral map, Democrats rule where the people are, the GOP is dominant in lightly populated areas.  There is NO WAY the GOP can survive this for long (unless they change or cheat).

Recent efforts to dissuade votes indicate the GOP has chosen cheating.

If the U.S. Senate was constituted like state legislatures, it would be overwhelmingly Democratic.   Only  blatant Gerrymandering keeps the GOP competitive in the House.

Only an average turnout of voters spells doom for the GOP.  And even that is changing, especially in California, New York and other states with large recent immigration populations.  

In California the GOP may be finished as a viable party, because it adheres to the Heritage Foundation like research that is not only indirectly racist, but directly racist as well.

Racism may make the bigoted feel better, but it has never lasted for long in a democratic system...it is always destined to fail.  And this time, it will take the GOP down with it.       

Freedom is Not Free

In 1970, while walking into the Basic Training facility, very reluctantly, in Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, I remember looking up and seeing a sign above the entrance:  "Freedom is Not Free".

In 1970 the Vietnam War was winding down, and opposition to it and the draft were at a peak.  The war fervor that had fed the military in the mid-60s was long gone. 

I remember vividly John F. Kennedy's Inaugural Address, when he called for national service with his famous "Ask not what you country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country".  

This had run head long into the realities of the Vietnam War, where national objectives became more muddled by the day, a war of National Liberation and anti-colonialism was depicted as containment of Communism, with disastrous results.  

"Freedom is Not Free" was sneered at by many of the Army recruits as we passed under the "welcoming sign".

Unfortunately, for many, they never forgot that experience.  It didn't matter if one served in Vietnam or stateside, the Army began to literally fall apart in the late sixties.  Morale plummeted as the war dragged on, nobody wanted to be the last man to die for a war that was looking more wrong by the day.

The by-product of this was a deep seated hostility to the federal government, both from those of conservative and of liberal persuasion.  Conservative soldiers hated the government for taking away their individual liberty, for the Army's bureaucracy.  The amazing organization that had humbled the Nazis and Japanese war machines, was seen as an evil empire.  FTA was a common phrase and openly written on helmets.  Liberals reacted to what they perceived as the Army as a right wing monolith, fascist in makeup, repressive of freedoms.  

Regular army soldiers, who had given the military their professional lives, reacted harshly to these attitudes, enforced punishment drills, and worse, in a desperate attempt to restore order to an army in open revolt.

The effect on the non-soldier population was dramatic.  Citizens of draft age opposed the war and the government automatically, never looking into how the United States got into the mess.  The United States was wrong, the government was oppressive, so "tune out, drop out, turn on".

I can remember what I just started teaching, having at least served in the military in a non-combat role, I was taken aback by high school students who declared openly they were going to Canada to avoid the draft (which was phased out soon after).  There was no draft, and they were mindlessly declaring they would renounce their citizenship and flee the country, rather than serve.

Conservatives have made a political movement out of hating the government.  Many prominent conservative leaders (Vice President Cheney comes to mind), made no secret out of dodging the draft during the 60s.  

President Clinton was elected with his dodging the draft an open subject.    Pictures taken in the 60s depict a hippy like young man, with his future bride Hillary, looking the role of anti-government rebels who resist government.  

So both sides of today's political movements, grew from beginning of opposition to the Vietnam War and a deep seated cynicism toward government.

But Freedom is Not Free.  That slogan is actually true.  Freedom requires governmental structures to protect it, to nurture it through a robust democratic system, and to teach it to new generations.

Today, the "Baby Boomers" are running the country, and politically still have the Vietnam, hate government, look out for number one, mentality.  Narcissism is at an all time high.  Political parties have seemingly forgotten to work together, politics has deteriorated into a "winner take all" game, with no quarter expected or offered.

But Freedom requires work, it does require doing something for your country and not just for yourself.  The proper thing to do during the hated Vietnam War was to work with political opposites, within the system, to end the involvement (and that actually ended the war according to most historians)..

Richard Nixon, a Cold Warrior of the first stripe, had a secret plan, which was to pull out as soon as possible, and treat the "Communist Menace" in a realistic manner, not with the dogma of the Red Scare 50s.  Democrats, whose party was ripped apart by the war, cooperated with Nixon, even pushing for a quicker departure, which was a dramatic shift from the hawkish position that had started the "Vietnam Conflict" in the first place.

But the troops did not forget.  Either because they had seen their buddies killed and maimed for nothing, or had resisted and opposed the war, going to jail rather than serve, young Americans who are now aging Americans grew to hate the government that just a few short years before had literally save the world during WWII.

Today we live with that legacy.  The baby boomers who fought the war, or against the war, have passed down to their children a distrust of government that is toxic and destructive to freedom in the end.  

This is dangerous to our freedom, because it really is not free.  

Really...the IRS and Citizens United

So now there is blood in the water.  The cons have yet another crusade, in the endless quest to destroy governmental credibility.

And, like fools, progressives are joining the mindless clamor.  Like fools, we take the bait.  Like fools, we throw fairness and government by law, not of by men, out the window.  

Ok, just do a little googling, and you can find out the real cause of this fuss.

The United States Supreme Court!

The "Citizens United" decision opened up the floodgates for 501 C (F) non-profit corporations to be formed, that heretofore had their primary mission social welfare causes, that now could be used as covers for political action groups.

And hundreds, mostly conservative organizations (many tea party operations), made application in the past two years to form these "non-profit", TAX EXEMPT organizations.  The reason this happened was Citizen United.  

The IRS was inundated with these applications.  And, the IRS had to decide if these new blatantly political organizations in fact were following the rules of a non-profit.  They blatantly were NOT.  

Remember, these non-profits, tax exempt organizations CANNOT advocate for a political candidate.  They can indirectly advocate for political causes, but direct political electioneering is not allowed.

In fact, the IRS regulations, passed by Congress, have purposefully left loopholes in the tax code big enough to drive a truck through.  The regulations are simply not enforceable, and the cons know it!

So, 501 C (fs), can solicit contributions, anonymously, and be tax exempt, and still support the most far out political agenda they want to.  

The rest of us, when we make a political contribution, have to sign an oath that we are not attempting to deduct it from our income tax.  If we do, the IRS is on us.  But if we belong to a 501 c, we can do anything we want.  That is the con!

Well la de da!   So millions pore into these "constitutional awareness" organizations, many anonymous, and can be deducted from taxes.  

What exists is a tax haven through the 501 c tax code.  Those who follow the old rules, cannot claim a tax break, those who follow the new "rules" can.  What!?  

Go ahead and google the Tea Party Express.  On their page, right now, is a graphic ENDORSING Mark Sanford for Congress in North Carolina.  Remember now, non-profits under the code cannot directly get involved in political activity.   What is this, if not blatantly breaking the tax code?

What in the hell is this, if not direct political activity?  Who is kidding whom?

So, we get feigned shock, anger, vitriol; even the President weighed in yesterday, saying how shocked he was.

Meanwhile, thanks to Citizens United, non profits can solicit campaign contributions anonymously, support candidates to the hilt, and then scream when the IRS checks if they are following the bogus rules.

This is a "controversy" that goes to the essence of the corruption of the political process in this country.

We will be now "entertained" to a blood bath feeding frenzy by cons in Congress, claiming the IRS and the government was out to get them.

Get them?  Really?   Really! 

And the amazing thing is, not one...not one single application for non-profit status by a tea party group, no matter how directly political their websites and operations were, have been turned down by the IRS.

NOT ONE.  SO WHERE IS THE HARM?  WHERE IS THE BEEF?  

As usual....no where!

I am Chairman of the Shasta Country Democratic Central Committee.  We are still subject to old campaign finance law.  We cannot burp sideways, and the feds and state regulators are after us...no tax exempt status, everything must be reported in extraordinary detail.  We fill out onerous regulation form after form with stiff fines if they are late or not filled in correctly.  

I have been remarking for months, how unfair it is, that using Citizens United, 501c's, are now the main political action committees in this country, eclipsing tradition political party organizations.  Research shows that the old, regulated process of campaign finance, has been "revolutionized by 504 c's, with disastrous effects for fair elections.  On the one hand you have a heavily regulated campaign finance system, with most of the big money migrating to 501 c  non-profits, who give you a tax break for  pouring money into a totally corrupt system.  

These "Citizens United" babies, have raised millions of dollars, not even bothering to hide their openly political operations, in a ruse that makes any fair minded person sick.

And the IRS, the favorite enemy of ALL wacknut conservatives, is now the enemy of us all, for simply trying to make some kind of fairness out of a legal mess caused by the "Supremes".

The IRS is under attack for trying to do their job!

And the trade-off is democracy dies a little more each day!

The Chargemaster

I recently did a presentation at our church on Health Care.   I based it on a investigatory piece in a news magazine that explored the fee structure issues of Hospitals and associated Health Care aspects.

It was there I finally met the chargemaster face to face.

My first wife died of beast cancer after an eight year struggle.  I served on the school district's board on self health insurance at that time.  Coupled with my wife's medical journey, and my insurance board membership,  I became a well versed person on the health care mess we have in this country.

The chargemaster is a perfect illustration on why the health care "industry" has utterly failed to regulate itself.  The "free market" approach, keeping governmental regulations as far away from the health care and insurance industry as possible, has resulted in the most expensive  and dysfunctional health care system on the planet.  

Moreover, using universal indicators of wellness. the United States, in spite of the huge costs and profits in its health care system, ranks well down the line relative to other industrialized nations in life expectancy, infant mortality, obesity; etc.  In short, we are paying huge premiums, and inflated prices for lousy care.

And the chargemaster sits right in the middle of this disaster.  The idea, if you can call such a malignant concept an idea, jacks the prices up on everything, from a gauze pad, to intensive care stays, to play the "game" of negotiating with insurance carriers.  

Actual fees for service, and that is broken out in agonizing detail,  vary  from insured to insured.  If the patient is un-insured, as over 40 million are today in the country, then the full price is charged.  Usually, in the pre-surgery conference, this lack of insurance means the chargemaster vastly inflated rates are charged, and the person gets up, and cancels the surgery; and dies; or checks into emergency, where the hospital is forced to treat, and then turns around and charges higher rates to the insured, which jacks up rates for everyone; which makes the rich richer!

The idea is to continue jacking up the costs, at every turn, blame everybody else, take no responsibility for your "industry", get rich in the process; and don't care.  

It is "CARE" that doesn't care; pure and simple.  Forget the nice commercials, American Health Care does not care...except for our wallets.  

I can remember going over my wife's hospital bills (there were many) and finding a box of facial tissues for $25.00.  The hospital knew we had insurance, but included this on the bill for one of dozens of hospitalizations.  

They could have thrown the $25.00 kleenex in as a bonus for "frequent stays program", but oh no...the chargemaster ruled.  This was in 1994, I suppose it is $35.00 now.  THIRTY FIVE DOLLARS FOR FACIAL TISSUE?

Be we had insurance, and we were "preferred patients" of a "preferred provider" so we didn't have to pay anything.  Insurance paid it.  Tom paid it.  Dick paid it.  Harry couldn't pay it; he died!  

Oh well!

That is the reaction of most people, when they have Medicare, or costly insurance through their employer, they rejoice when the "bill" actually is thousands of dollars less than the endless lists the chargemaster spews out; the vomit from the chronically ill American health care system.

And Harry dies.

Obama Care is being phased in.  It is based on a conservative plan, incorporating free market principles.  It is NOT a single payer system like Medicare.  It was the only thing that could have squeaked through Congress.  It took over 100 years to happen, and there are forces right now, pigs at the health care trough, who are trying to fool all of us into repealing it, so their binge of rip off can continue.  

The more they yell, the more we should resist their corrupt advice.  

Obamacare is NOT the sole answer to accelerating health care prices and costs for sure.  But it is for sure a viable start; and the insurance industry, the hospital industry, the lab industry, are all quietly spending millions to discredit it.  And they just might win again.  

What is galling, is the total inability of health care professionals to stand up and stop the rip-offs, stop the shell game, that charges $25.00 for a box of tissue paper, or itemizes each service for a hospital room while up front charging thousands simply for being there; multiplying the costs by the power of 10.  If Motel Six did that, I am buying stock in it tomorrow.  

When will health care professionals stand up and stop this ridiculous shell game?  Are there any good people out there who have read when Jesus went into the temple and threw out the money changers?  Do any of them read what he did next?  He healed the blind, tended to the sick.

We need to throw the money changers out, and heal patients!

And the only thing that heretofore has acted to pathetically reign in this bing of overcharging?  Medicare and Medicaid.  

When you get on Medicare you get it.  The bill comes in, thousands of dollars more than Medicare pays, and you rejoice because Medicare "forces doctors and hospitals to take way less than their charges".  What you might realize, is the charges are what a true free market would be.   What you might marvel at is, why do doctors, labs and hospitals, always take Medicare?  

Because Medicare IS the true free market value!  And Medicare pays, without the volumes of red-tape that the private insurance cabal puts providers through.   Next time you are in your doctor's office, ask to speak to the person who handles insurance billing.  If the practice is of any size at all, you will find another office, staffed with several people; or the doctor has outsourced billing to another firm.

Insurance billing and collection have become an industry unto itself, spending millions on simply processing claim forms, and figuring out the malignant game of the chargemaster.  

And the only thing standing between all of us consumers and their avarice is Medicare, Medicaid, and the Affordable Care Act.  

And right now, that is not enough.  

A House Divided

Lincoln, in his famous address, said "A House Divided Cannot Stand". 

Today, the partisan divide in America has never been deeper, save 1860.  

Conservatives versus progressives, Republicans versus Democrats is a deep and agonizing wound across our political landscape.

In South Carolina, Tuesday, we saw the most shocking evidence of that divide.

Mark Sanford, former Governor who faked a trip to Argentina to visit his mistress, using governmental funds lying about  walking the Appalachia Trail, won against his Democratic opponent.

Now, in regular circumstances his loss this would have been a no brainer, but the immoral jerk won.  

The Congressional District is heavily Republican, a Democrat has not won there for decades.  So the fact a Republican won is not a big shock.  

But Sanford was a proven adulterer, in a Chritian Conservative area, and had even mis-used government funds.

Worse, we must remember that he did not resign as Governor, but served his full term.  He basically thumbed his nose at "family values" the Republicans chant, and did what he wanted to do.

And Tuesday he was rewarded with a seat in Congress.

My conservative buddies cite Clinton's  moral lapses, but forget he was already elected.  Sanford won AFTER his indiscretions were discovered.  He simply asked for forgiveness, and won.  

The Republican Party is obviously for "family values" with an askerisk.  

My Facebook buddies responsed to a critical cartoon about Sanford, by chanting the "smaller government" bit, as if that counters the fact that a person of dubious character just was elected by a party that brands itself as the "family values" party.

The partisan divide is so deep, that even adultery means nothing to the electorate.  

They literally would elect "Donald Duck" if he/she was a Republican.

Sanford is a hard right conservative, who campaigned debating a cardboard cutout of former Speaker Nancy Polosi, makes no secret of his distain for the African-American President, in a Deep South state:  racism and sexism count in South Carolina.

So, the two sides polarize more and more.  The hatred continues, The lack of bipartisanship grows as the United States political system becomes more dysfunctional by the day.

Today, in the Record Searchlight had yet one more letter to the editor, attacking the Affordable Care Act as a disaster.  The author totally disregarded that the past Republican presidential candidate's biggest political accomplishment was the passage of the same law in his state.  The attacks on "Obamacare" ignore that the law is at its core a conservative/moderate idea.  

Partisanship means victory at all costs.  Literally "we saved the village by destroying it" is the partisan call today.  

Sensible gun regulation was defeated.  Law that we once lived under; universal background checks, are now stonewalled so that another partisan victory can be achieved.

The preponderance of this is occuring on the right; but progressives share some of this irresponsibility.

Some Democrats have taken a no compromise position regarding climate change, pushing for immediate change to non-fossil energy, when a radical change would lead to chaos.  Lawsuites are lodged against rapid transit by environmentalists, who value a few trees, over more economical (and less polluting) transportation.  

The genius of the American Political System has been its moderation and common sense government. The Constitution is written so radicals cannot govern, moderation and compromise is the only way to get anything done.  

Today we are faced with a political dysfunction that could once again plunge the nation into the same chaos we endured 1860-64.  

And who "wins" then?  

The Haunting of Old Age

My father is 89 years old.  His wife, my mother, died almost a decade ago.  All of his friends are now gone. 

He never was much for social communications, although when he is with people, he is gregarious as they come.

But he has decided that he will die in his home; at least that is his current desire.

What little desire he still expresses.

He is hopelessly lonely, and dementia is creeping in, silent and haunting every day, every evening, every sensory deprived morning.  He forgets one day to the next, sometimes the whole day.

I go down there more than I ever thought I would.  You see, my father can be abusive, especially as the dementia seeps further into his aging consciousness.  He will rage from time to time, from loneliness and from paranoid dementia.  

Most of it seems, when I am not so angry at him I can hardly speak, to be a creeping sense that he no longer has control of much of anything.  He seems to be sensing that he has no control of events, of family, of his own life.  

For some reason, this always has been very important to my father, the sense that somehow he can control people, events.  He always has been a control freak. 

My father was a leader.  He didn't go very far, he was a manager in a car dealership's shop  for most of his working life.  He only had a high school education, but is far more capable than that. 

He was caught in the Great Depression and like many of that time, had to settle for eking out a living the best he could.  He worked on section gangs, on the Central Valley Project, then settled into a journeyman mechanic position, and stayed with that the rest of his life. 

He can fix anything, something I, a Stanford graduate with a M.A., cannot even come close to doing.

But old age haunts him.  I don't know really at this point, where is is with his faith.  Sometimes I think he is at peace with God, then the paranoia comes in, the rants, and we all have to start over again.

He is in pain, he is miserable, and he is not happy.  But, he lives on, alone. 

We have arranged for In Home Health Services to help him, with cleaning the house, meals, and such.  They are in the home three days a week.  I am trying to get someone in the house every day.  This is especially important since his dementia seems to spike, some days it is really bad, and I am worried that he might hurt himself.

The Doctor has told him not to drive, but his still has his license.   We all have warned him not to drive anymore.  He forgot how to turn on the car lights a month ago.  He is a mechanic!

He rails at the sunset, he rails at the sunrise.  His soul at times seems tortured, haunted by the demons of pain, old age, and knowing that almost all that he loved is gone. 

He gripes that his grand kids won't come see him, but then when they do, he goes off on them, and they leave often after an argument.

I am trying to at least plant the seed that he might be more happy in a senior living environment, to be around people.  But, every time I bring it up, he talks about the "homes" of the Great Depression, when the elderly were literally left to rot in squalor.   So that is out.

As I watch, and try to help, in between periods of hoping he passes on, I am haunted by the chance that I may be looking at myself in 20 years or so; an old man alone, snapping at life like a wounded animal, hopelessly unhappy and lonely.  I don't want to wait to die like that.

The haunting of old age.