So as you presumably have all heard by now, the Republicans were able to get their Obamacare repeal bill through the House. Which means we need to 1) make sure they don’t get an equivalent bill through the Senate 2) make sure that all the Republicans who voted for this bill lose their jobs as soon as possible.
I’ve been filling up my Twitter with reactions to this shit, so, hey, why not open up a thread for you to share your reactions as well?
They passed the bill. Now let's make sure they lose their jobs.
— David Futrelle (@DavidFutrelle) May 4, 2017
https://twitter.com/nsilverberg/status/860200105751625728
USE YOUR VOICE AND SHOW UP TO A TOWN HALL MEETING NEXT WEEK. Find your town hall here: https://t.co/Fy2dVIS3lK #trumpcare
— Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) May 4, 2017
Here's a coordinated, national donation campaign raising money for opponents of GOP reps voting for Trumpcare: https://t.co/gQEr744pzQ
— Robert McNees (@mcnees) May 4, 2017
There's something strange about this group that just decided RAPE was a pre-existing condition… pic.twitter.com/xDtQT4fNeX
— Mikel Jollett (@Mikel_Jollett) May 4, 2017
https://twitter.com/whittyhutton/status/860220544989442049
Nate Silver’s Numbers Suggest That Voting For Trumpcare May Cost Republicans The House https://t.co/CkoASSKFhg
— #TheResistance (@SocialPowerOne1) May 4, 2017
Throw them all out. #RESIST! #PERSIST! #BePISSED!
And maybe, if you like this sort of thing, watch a video of Dr. Pimple Popper squeezing out a #CYST! (I dunno, I find these videos sort of relaxing.)
@psychod787
You’re welcome. I believe that ‘humanism’, while seemingly ideal, would in practice crash and burn horrifically when put into practice in the real world.
There are deep-seated systemic inequalities in the way that our entire society operates. In addition, each individual in said society is full of prejudices, conscious and unconscious. All of this compromises anyone’s ability to act in an entirely impartial manner.
To act as if these systemic problems don’t exist, to avoid acknowledging them, is the worst thing you could possibly do if your aim was to effect change for the better, as then one would be treating as unchangeable or given what must be changed and rejected.
As hackneyed as the saying is, change starts from within. One person railing against the shadowy “puppet masters” may be cathartic, but ultimately that person would be better served by finding the strings and strictures that they have woven for themselves, and severing those first. It makes no sense to fight with your hands tied.
@wwth
He may be a troll, he may not be. I had enough cheer left in me to give him the benefit of the doubt, and typing out my reply helped me consider and collect my thoughts, so I count it as a net win for Team Ariblester.
If I was being hyper-vigilant in spotting a Mark sock, I would give the side-eye to the “I was the only male in a class run by an eeevil feminist who surgically fused with the SCUM Manifesto” (was it a gender studies class, perchance?), or to the “I believe we all have the same rights in America for self actualization” (at least he wasn’t trying to demand that rights be physically tangible before he would concede that they exist).
@Everyone who would be affected negatively by Trumpcare
You have my sympathies and support.
Back from my MRI. Woot. I now have 2 lumps in my left arm/hand from the fun of blood draw and the IV for the contrast.
And yes, “pre-existing condition” is an evil term, especially since it’s so broadly applied. Sadly, it’s also often applied as a moral judgment. So, for example, someone who has a history of alcohol/drug addiction has a pre-existing condition. As a diabetic with a history of hemorrhagic stroke, I also have pre-existing conditions, and because some people don’t realize diabetes is genetic, in their eyes I must be a slob who didn’t take care of herself. Never mind that diabetes runs in my family and I’m a former fencer.
@Bina
You’re not the only one.
Bullshit. People are having a serious discussion about extremely important shit and you come up with this disingenuous shit?
Away with you.
@ Vicky P
That’s handy; I’ve got some hooky jewellery I need to shift.
Hope the MRI went ok though, notwithstanding the arm bumps.
numerobis,
:-(((((
I would so much rather be proved wrong about what we are facing in the near future.
@DanHolme, where I live happens to be a pretty solid labour seat, but right now I could almost wish I lived in a marginal just so my vote counted for something (if you see what I mean. I’m grateful to live in a labour seat, really, but like you I’m not looking forward to these results). It pisses me off beyond words and breaks my heart that some people would rather witter on about not liking a particular labour politician instead of at the very least voting anti-tory to try and save their own and their neighbours’ healthcare and welfare. A lot of us kept voting labour under Blair despite loathing a great deal about him and his policies because we could see that the alternative was even worse, but it would seem that some of the right-ish bits of the party aren’t prepared to return the favour.
I’m not sure what if anything I can do to help; there is a more marginal seat a few miles away I could get a bus to, but I’m frankly petrified at the mere thought of trying to talk to strangers on doorsteps. I’ve donated what little I could, right after the GE was announced. In campaigns gone by I’ve delivered leaflets, as that doesn’t require actually speaking to anyone, but they seem to want door-knockers 🙁
@ Alan
En garde, sir! 😉
Thanks for the best wishes. I should hear something on Monday.
Lots of love and warm hugs for everyone who’s facing down an insurance crisis. ‘Cause lord knows I need some.
Here in Tennessee, Knox County and the surrounding counties (every county that shares a border with Knox) are looking at no providers in the health exchanges next year.
My rep voted for this horrible bill. We begged him not to, but he didn’t listen.
Fuck, Falconer. All the warm hugs to you and to everyone threatened by this.
How pathetic are your achievements that you have to make a fuss about a bill getting out of the House & going to the Senate. I mean they can’t be at all confident it’s going to pass if he’s celebrating at this stage. It’s just a nasty, shitty document pushed through with all the crap the far right nut jobs wanted in there just so Trump could say hey I did a thing. I don’t care that it’s a shitty thing, and I actually rather like the whole Single payer system they have in Australia better, but I’m wanting to look good to my fan base not actually do what I think is best.
@Wwaxwork
This is the one thing that has kept me from really tearing my hair out and sinking into despair. This was a TIGHT vote, 217-213. It squeaked by in a House controlled by Republicans, and is expected to not even be brought to a vote as-is in a Senate also controlled by Republicans, backed by, let us not forget, a Chief Executive/White House who is/are, at least nominally, also Republicans.
This is the best they can do, barely pass a bill in one Congressional House, with no reasonable expectation that it will go further, when they have full political control of the government?
It has kept me from outright sobbing (not hyperbole) at times.
@ vicky p
Heh, I think you’d win that one. Although if you could just leave me with a cool duelling scar that’d be appreciated. Funnily enough I am just now re-reading the Book of Five Rings. So, as long as you can learn sword fighting by osmosis I should be fine.
WWTH: no. My alarm has been going off, big time.
On topic,
Why doesn’t Congress just take this shit to its logical conclusion? “We liked how the 1850’s looked. Let’s get back to that point, shall we?
If you’re born, anything after that is a pre-existing condition. You were born, after all.”
@Rhuu Thanks a lot for your explanation. Now it’s clear for me why Incels were mocking women on their thread, speaking rubbish like “muh taken rights”.
I seriously hope there’s a way to fight against this bill.
@ Alan
Cool dueling scar, check.
I once had to go up against a novice fencer who didn’t think he could “fight a girl.” I got 3 touches in before I popped him in the face (masked, of course).
ETA @ Andy 707 – The Senate doesn’t want to vote on it, so apparently they’re going to do their own bill, and they may have a rougher time of it, given that the vote would have a smaller margin over there.
@ vicky p
Ta.
Ooh, you know that’s one of my bugbears.
And quite topical. Just been putting something together about Gal Gadot. In response to usual whinging about female protagonists and the Wonder Woman film. Two years IDF fitness instructor, certified Krav Maga instructor and by all accounts pretty decent in BJJ. So somewhat more genuinely badass than a lot of male action stars. I look forward to the inevitable boycott.
Eugh.
Not surprised that incels love this bill. They’ll love anything that harms women while complaining that women won’t choose them. But it’s women who are the illogical ones. /eyeroll
A commenter pointed out that regardless of the bill, women will still not choose them. Some are at least that self-aware?
@opposablethumbs
I completely agree about Blair, who I could not stand but who still did not put me off Labour – though I had a big issue with having to vote for a party that started an imperialist war, as the least worst option. Still, not voting Labour to spite Blair is proper ‘turkeys voting for Xmas’ strategy.
I have just heard that Derbyshire County Council has gone Con, from Labour – so that’s a great end to the week… (I can’t do gifs, but picture a look of weary despair on the face of a character from fiction that you like).
Good luck with the leafleting if you decide to go, but don’t put yourself under more pressure than you need to. There’s other things you can do – I like to put radical newspapers in my local pub (I used to do it with ‘Schnews’, now it’s more likely to be ‘The New European’).
—–
Sorry, the above sentence was going somewhere, but I got dragged off for some work and have lost my train of thought. Just stay personally safe and happy, if you can.
My limited internet time for the week is up, so I’m off underground – I might take a book and stay there! (Harrybecca Mine on Hassop Common, if anyone wants to google it.)
@everyone else
Sorry to hade off into British matters when you’re having such a tough time over there, but it is a global struggle, and you know we’re with you. Please look after yourselves and each other. Like we used to say back in the day, “There is no justice, just us.”
@ wildwood treehugger
I agree with pretty much everything in the article and your comments but there’s one thing I have to jump on, since I’m seeing it around often and it’s starting to seriously bug me:
From my closest group of friends:
-The guy who was beat up by his girlfriend because she knew he wouldn’t retaliate. This came after she pretended to be pregnant, which he discovered, and told her he wanted to break up. It culminated with her severing one of his finger by crushing his phalanx in a door he was trying to open while she threatened to hurt herself. The guy is a 1.90 m aikido champion and a lawyer, when asked why he wouldn’t lay a finger on her: “Because I know how these things go afterwards”.
-The guy who is insulted and beaten publicly by his wife, who does it because she knows years of abuse at the hands of his mother make him unable to stand up to a woman even verbally, no matter what she does. He deals with this through heavy drinking.
-My brother getting punched by a girl he was seeing because she decided they should fuck and he didn’t feel like it so he said no. She later went on to harass him.
I don’t know if you seriously believe that no woman ever treats any man horribly or if you’re posturing for power like the Trump boys, but either way it’s seriously fucked up. I’ve recently started “Not all men”ing again, after I had actually stopped doing it, because I noticed it enabled me to discriminate between actual activists and abusive manipulative assholes according to their reaction. Do you really think ignoring abuse on some people helps other abuse victims?
That’s a rhetorical question. Don’t bother answering.
abars01
You’re not wrong. My husband had a cataract removed from his right eye on Tuesday and we had to go back on Wednesday for a follow-up check. He’s now booked in for a further check in a month … to see whether it would be worth doing the other eye.
Cost us $$$zero – nil, nothing, zilch. Even the two lots of medication to be used at home, one lot of antibiotic eyedrops and the other eyedrops are anti-inflammatory.
I feel so sorry for all of you in the US. There were some really heart-wrenching items on MSNBC earlier. http://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/-this-isn-t-the-america-i-love-936797251755
I want to thank everyone for the support, we Americans need it.
This is reason #190,435 why we should have voted for Bernie Sanders or Jill stein or at least a Native American for president. Of course they’re not perfect but I know they would make infinity times better presidents than this orange Hitler.
Seriously the Orange Hitler is everything wrong with America and the Republican Party in a nutshell:
They are anti-immigration but this country was built on immigration. The first immigrants, terrorists, savages and thugs are white people.
They call themselves pro-life but he raped people and is a rape apologist, he also sent missles to Syria, encourages and defends violence to people he doesn’t like, and now is trying to pass this bill.
They are also pro-gun, pro-war, cut funding to healthcare and other important places that can save lives, and refuse to give rights and protection to people such as women, Poc, etc.
They want marriage to be sacred but had affairs and divorces.
They believe in freedom of religion but only Christianity any other religion should be bashed, mocked and banned. Only Christianity should be forced upon people.
I need kittens
http://www.petmd.com/sites/default/files/what-to-feed-kitten.jpg
OT a bit here – I have some good news to share. I just heard back from my neurologist’s office. He’s reviewed my MRI and the radiologist’s report, and the hemorrhage is continuing to resolve. No need to follow up with him.
Now I need to collapse and pet a kitty.
Victorious Parasol,
YAY! *Does happy dance for you*
Anyone needing a goodly dose of pure unadulterated rage at the passing of this bill should check Keith Olbermann’s item.
The Shame and Cruelty of the GOP
@Victorious Parasol
Congratulations!
A winner is you.