When you’re elected as a senator what is more important, backing an agenda that makes progress toward a better country or being re-elected? Senator Susan Collins, Republican from Maine was asked today if Donald Trump ran for President again would she support him. The best Senator Collins could do was say that it was very unlikely given the number of other qualified candidates that appear interested in running. It is interesting to note that in Trump’s second impeachment trial Senator Collins was one of seven Republicans to vote in favor of impeachment. So at that time so believed he had committed a violation of his oath of office so severe he should be removed. Now, well, maybe he is qualified and acceptable to run and maybe I’ll support his candidacy. Is it that hard to look at everything he has done and say something really simple. “There is no way, under any circumstance, I will ever support his candidacy for President of the United States.” There are two reasons for refusing to say that sentence. First, primary voters are the. Base of the Republican Party. They will go out and vote in the primary election. They, at least at this point, still think Donald Trump should carry the party banner. So Senator Collins is looking for re-election not for the good of the country. The second reason? Well that would require Senator Collins to have a spine. It is a condition all to common among those currently in office representing the Republican Party.
Sunday, January 30, 2022
Sunday, January 23, 2022
Fuck the Packers
As a Bears fan there is very little more satisfying than seeing the Packers lose a playoff game in the cold at Lambeau Field. After hitting the game winning field goal either Robbie Gould or Jimmy Garroppolo said “Fuck the Packers.” Bears fans would like to credit Gould since he formerly played for the Bears. It doesn’t matter to me who said it I just agree.
Tuesday, January 11, 2022
The Power of Lies
We have, for over a year, battled Donald Trump’s lies about the 2020 election.
Extensive voter fraud. LIE
Dead people by the thousands voted. LIE
He won the election by a huge margin. LIE
Noncitizens voted. LIE
What is the result? A recent poll indicated 71% of Republicans believed President Biden was not legitimately elected. The same poll showed 33% of all voters believed the same thing. The question is why?
Pulitzer Prize winner Daniel Kahneman says in Thinking, Fast and Slow, “A reliable way to make people believe in falsehoods is frequent repetition, because familiarity is not easily distinguished from truth.”Once a concept’s popularity ascends to a certain point, people will blindly assume its truth, and no amount of valid criticism can fully eradicate it.
So people believe the election was not legitimate because they keep hearing that from the former President and constantly on Fox News. No one has provided proof. No lists of illegal voters. No list of dead people who voted. No evidence of illegal absentee ballots. If there was fraud they have had a full year to make their case and provide proof. They haven’t because there isn’t any. Now, it doesn’t matter. People have heard the lies repeated over and over. They cannot distinguish between the familiar and the truth.
It is easier to fool someone than it is to convince them after they have been fooled of the truth.
We are going to live with the effects of these lies for a long time.
Sunday, January 9, 2022
It Was a Sad Experience
I went to the pharmacy yesterday to pick up a new prescription for my wife. It was phoned in the day before. Freezing rain was predicted later in the morning so I drove the 15 miles to pick it up before things got slick. It wasn’t ready so I sat in the waiting area while they counted pills and got insurance authorization. It seems everyone else who needed a prescription filled had the same idea. I say and watched while several folks picked up their prescriptions and walked to the front to pay. A couple of minutes later they would be back with the same question.
“Why is this so much more than last time?”
The pharmacist provided a variety of answers. New year new deductible. The price of the drug went up. Blah, blah, blah. It basically came down to it is what it is. It then became what can you afford? He would then dispense the number of pills they could afford. In some cases a couple of weeks worth instead of a month. What happens in two weeks? They do the dance again? They try to stretch those medications to last a month? These were all middle aged folks. We live in a very rural area of western Illinois. The kind of area where you drive 15 or 20 miles to get to a town of less than 5,000 with places like a grocery store and a pharmacy. If you want to get to a larger city- Quincy, Peoria, Springfield for example, the drive is 50+ miles. Factory jobs? Most of those left the area in the 1970’s and 1980’s. Those job losses took with them the insurance benefits they provided for thousands in the area. So, far too many do the tough walk at the pharmacy. They walk from the pharmacy clerk to the front register and back to the pharmacy clerk. They try to figure out what they can afford while keeping their household fed, clothed and sheltered.
That folks is the sad state of healthcare in America. They need the medications to live. They don’t want to die and struggle just to survive. We can and should be better than this.
