Most people haven't watched someone they love or been put through bad unavoidable situations themselves they had no control over. Unless you first hand witness or are the recipient of that type of pain, it's hard to really be empathetic. I've watched two really close friends pass away at a young age from different illnesses. One at 32 years of age from a genetic disorder that sped up stage IV colon cancer. Another with genetic disorders that gave her a compromised immune system, among other health complications, that cumulatively took her life at the young age of 27. The colon cancer person was a best friend of mine that worked for Seton hospitals in Austin as a phone operator. He always opted into his long term disability when choosing annual benefits that would be deducted in his bi-monthly paycheck. Same for long term health insurance, which he opted into. Then finding out HR with Seton had a glitch and discovering he lost his coverage for both that wouldn't be corrected until it was the last month of his life, where he was compensated all of $2,000-ish in backpay by a Case Manager that noticed the glitch on the 7th Floor Oncology at Seton Main. Dude gave them 11 years of service before he was physically unable and that's how that non-profit treated him. Had to move out from his roommates, move to Lampasas back in with his parents. Those parents after he passed had to sell their home and find smaller and cheaper living accomodations in Dublin, Texas instead. They're proud people, but I wouldn't be surprised if they had to sell the home in Lampasas to cover the healthcare bills to treat their recently deceased son. You can't tell me healthcare in the U.S. is functioning after reading that. Changes your perspective watching a good man suffer from a genetic disorder that increases the likelihood of cancer, then watch a company he was loyal to, **** up his coverage on account of a glitch from Human Resources, have to opt for more expensive ACA just to have any coverage, and still suffer and die anyways. Then realize the medical bills still have to be paid by next of kin, i.e. the deceased's parents who have to sell their home to cover the costs and move to even more remote part of the country just to get by. That's U.S. healthcare unless you're working for a Fortune 500 company yourself that treats you like a valued member with good private healthcare options. That's not most Americans though. It's tough watching someone with genetic disorders have to cut off family because one of the parents was physically abusive, would gaslight her daughter and her daughter's friends for personal info, to see if she would disclose abuse from that parent to other people. And then would use that info she'd gather from friends innocently enough to abuse that daughter further. It's tough knowing someone had to cut off a financially well off upper middle class family, lose private healthcare and other financial assistance, all because of an abusive parent everyone else was covering up for. It sucks knowing that this same woman had to opt for government assistance, lose home health staff that could come to her apartment and treated her for years, and instead needed to drive to clinics for treatment instead. And if you don't know this, but clinics and for that matter hospital floors that aren't ICU, don't like dealing with seizure patients. She went from having home healthcare that would come to her, to having to drive on her own, despite having daily seizures, risking the lives of not only herself, but everyone on the road just to get treatment to survive. Then watching her health deteriorate so bad she lost hearing and further mobility impairments that made even dangerous driving an impossibility. So she had to become more dependent on friends like myself to take her to appointments. All because she had to go with an inferior health insurance option by cutting off her parents, one of them being physically and emotionally abusive. And if she were to get exhausted from physical therapy for instance, increasing her likelihood of having a seizure on site, EMS and law enforcement would be called. Law enforcement which tazed her service dog and legally could have killed it while responding to a dispatch call to help a seizure patient. That dog was scared of people in uniform subsequently. Not to mention that enormous bill she would get for having EMS called at these medical clinics, all on roughly $1,000 a month in social security disability. $433 that would go to rent, another $150-200 that would go to her service dog that had health complications too, $20/mo for the cheapest phone option, $80/mo for the only internet package she could choose from her low income apartment. So roughly $700-800/mo in just those day to day expenses. Then car insurance. Then the co-pays and medical bills for daily treatments, arguing with insurance companies, dealing with after hour hospital paging services to reach the on call specialist, the faulty HEB pharmacies that would always get scripts wrong, the costly EMS bills, the costly hospital stays, the shitty LEO that traumatized a service animal that prompted that same friend to contact me, that lived a good 45 minutes away from her, to pick her up in the middle of the night to take her to the ER to get admitted, because it's too damn expensive to use EMS services and cops may respond first and irresponsibly shoot her dog they had already tazed once before. Can you imagine going unconscious in your own apartment and just before you go under, you're able to call 911 to come for help. You regain consciousness from one of your seizures, see a bunch of people in uniform around you you don't recognize and hear them give the sobering news that one of them shot your service dog that's been with you for years. That was a potential reality for a close friend of mine. I've seen how shitty healthcare and shitty people in uniform can ruin lives and trust in the systems they represent. I read these dumb posts from people that rationalize the high death counts and treat those numbers like statistics instead of recognize that every single number there, was a person that probably meant the world to a small circle of friends and family that got to know them. It's disgusting really the rationalizing people do to justify that **** show that's going on right now. At least my friends got to have family and friends be around bedside when they passed in the hospital. These Covid victims, just have their medical staff present. They don't even get to get buried, cremated or have a say in whatever proceedings they'd like to have done to honor and remember them. Some just get to decompose piled up with other bodies with no semblance of dignity carried out on their behalf. Just to appease dumb ****s like your Trumps, Kushners, Ferntits, Dan Patricks, Abbots, Cornyns and McConnell's of the world. Makes no sense.
Trump has left the state governors to make the rules they want to make for their states. I'm glad to live in Texas and have gov Abbott making decisions for Texans instead of the fed govt. You got a problem with this? To answer your question, neither a liberal or a conservative is the POTUS. A businessman is the POTUS and for this I say it's about time. We had a great economy (Highest stock market of all time) before China decided to release a plague on the world and somehow that's Trump's fault? Far less people are dying than what was predicted under Trumps leadership and for that I'm thankful.
He predicted zero, as you learned yesterday. We're only 1.5 Battle of Antietams past that marker and headed for about 10x more. Just a bit outside, as Bob Uecker said.
Delightful. Video shows [Michigan] man who was told to wear mask wiping nose on Dollar Tree employee's shirt
Heartbreaking tragedies LB. As an aside, the next of kin doesn't have to pay anything. Worse comes to worse, the collections vultures ding the credit rating of the departed. They can try to garnish the estate through lawsuits, but the system has already sucked that dry. I would sue the employer, but it takes money to make money. Thugs wearing suits...
Thank you for sharing that. There are a lot of stories like that out there. I've even heard stories like that who are demanding to open things up. There are major disconnects out there. It's not just the idea of American Exceptionalism but people just feel exceptional even when they've been through issues already of dealing with pre-existing conditions and wrestling with health insurance. They've come to believe that somehow they aren't going to get the disease or if they do it won't be that bad. Even though many of them are in the highest risk group. One of the people I know who is really pushing opening and post a lot (often wrong info) is a first responder. Every time he brings up the argument that this is about Freedom I point out to him that freedom isn't without responsibility and he as a first responder should be very well how the irresponsible actions of individuals can affect many others.
In 2006 people were bragging about the economy, the unemployment rate and GDP growth and in 1.5 years one of the largest economic crashes in American history occured. Trump's economy was fueled by consumer debt and low fed interest rates which causes a bubble that will eventually burst. https://www.marketwatch.com/story/u...d-during-the-2008-financial-crisis-2019-06-19 Consumer debt was at an all time high before the virus scare. Federal deficits were increasing at a rapid pace even during a period of sustained high GDP growth which is the exact opposite of what usually happens as high GDP growth and low unemployment usually means increased tax revenue and less spending on things like welfare. Trump is someone who nutted out of a 413 million dollar penis who has never had any intellectual curiosity to learn any subject with nuance. If you think he's se sort of business savant, than go to talk to the showrunners for the Apprentice because they would like to apogixe to you for selling you that narrative as they even publicly stated that they only chose Trump because of his boisterous personality that fits with reality TV. He's a ambitious dumbass who was born into extreme wealth.
Omg man. We’re in April he denied it at the beginning and called it a hoax. I don’t care if you support trump but don’t say **** like he mitigated this, his response is one of the reasons I’ve seen colleagues and friends work without PPE, some die. He opens his stupid mouth and tweets about his ratings while people are dying. It’s ****ing pitiful that we have a subset of the population that’s so absurdly stupid, I’m a conservative btw.
You think pandemic responses should be left to the governors instead of the Fed? That's why we have had such an uncoordinated response. Trump is responsible for the the US response regardless of whether he wants to take responsibility or not.
Yes, I believe Montana or Texas should have a totally different response than New York/New Jerjey or Connecticut. You're right Trump is responsible and the death rates have been nowhere near the predicted numbers. #Great job I'm especially glad the federal govt isn't forcing it's will on the people.
1st of all he put restrictions on travel to China within 10 days of when it became obvious there was a problem. He was called racist by CNN/Biden etc... (He saved alot of lives with this single decision.) 2nd When China knew that Covid-19 was real, instead of letting the world know and respond accordingly (Whether by accident or as I believe on purpose.) Instead the Chinese govt bought up all of the masks they could by with the idea they could sell the masks at a profit. They even threatened to not sell masks to the USA. In short they are evil basT***s. This is why your friends didn't have proper PPE. (I bet they have proper PPE now.) We've gotta shut off China and start making things like PPE/drugs etc... in this country.
Do you know how to read? No, that's a serious question. I ask because your talking points have all been proven false numerous times, here and else where. The restrictions he put in place were late, had all sorts of loopholes and were largely ineffective. trump continued to praise china and the chinese leader in numerous tweets. He waited months before really taking action (after golf and campaign rallies) and now, just now when the actions are having an effect he is rushing to end them. It truly is nuts.
Trump has only laid off Jina so we could buy masks and other gear from them. Good idea on making healthcare grade PPE domesitically. Beautifaily brilliant. Last Month- https://www.wired.com/story/defense-production-act-n95-masks-shortage-covid-19/ Six to eight weeks ago, the government might have been able to make key purchases using the DPA and lay the groundwork for a ramp-up in production, says Kelly Magsamen, a former National Security Council and Defense Department official. “Unfortunately, we’ve lost a significant amount of time.” OOOPSIES Guess we'll have to wait a bit longer because the Media is Mean. Who needs masks anyways? It's a symbol of fascism and Hilterism.
The debt rose much slower under Trump than under Bush/Obama. Business was good and Business owners were optimistic. I guess you like higher taxes/unemployment. Because that's what you're going to get with Biden. That and getting back in bed with a country that allowed a plague to infect the world, (With no repercussions.) BTW, The Stock Market is sitting at 24,000. It was sitting at 17,000 when Trump took over. Not bad in these Pandemic times.
They haven't been proven false. It's true there were loopholes (To try to apease the Dems) that was a mistake Trump made. The thing about the masks were on the news yesterday. I would suggest you check it out.
Bullshit https://www.thebalance.com/trump-plans-to-reduce-national-debt-4114401 National Debt Since Trump Took Office At first, it seemed Trump was lowering the debt. It fell $102 billion in the first six months after Trump took office.18 On January 20th, the day Trump was inaugurated, the debt was $19.9 trillion. On July 30, it was $19.8 trillion. But it was not because of anything he did. Instead, it was because of the federal debt ceiling. On September 8, 2017, Trump signed a bill increasing the debt ceiling.19 Later that day, the debt exceeded $20 trillion for the first time in U.S. history. On February 9, 2018, Trump signed a bill suspending the debt ceiling until March 1, 2019.20 It leapt to $22 trillion. In July 2019, Trump suspended the debt ceiling until after the 2020 presidential election.21 The debt soon rose to $23 trillion. Trump has overseen the fastest increase in the debt of any president. Trump's Fiscal Year 2021 budget projects the debt would increase $4.8 trillion during his first term.22 That's as much as Obama added while fighting a recession. Trump has not fulfilled his campaign promise to cut the debt. Instead, he's done the opposite. “The United States will never default because you can print the money."
