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Nuclear Unicorn

Nuclear Unicorn's Journal
Nuclear Unicorn's Journal
January 14, 2016

Good-bye, Single Payer Healthcare. We never knew you.

Many said the ACA was supposed to be a stepping stone to SP. I never believed that because it has subsidies for insurance corporations baked-in to the recipe. You can't prop-up something by law and with taxpayer money and then credibly claim to later end that thing. Add to that the failures in executions that have dogged the law since its enactment means the government lacks the public's trust with even bigger projects.

Now we have the internecine warfare of the Democratic primaries. Everything being said to trash SP is now fodder for every conservative political ad, commentary and editorial.

"It'll take away your health insurance away."

"It'll lead to massive tax hikes on the middle class."

And every time we will attempt to counter those claims we will be told it was a Democratic presidential candidate that said it.

I'll readily admit my political involvement is less than a decade long but I never would have imagined I would see such an absolute gutting of long-term policy goals in the name of short-term, self-serving -- and self-destructive -- political expediency.

January 14, 2016

Just a reminder, Single Payer healthcare is a ballot referendum this election cycle.

However, with the presumptive nominee of the Democratic party making overtures to Australian style gun confiscation the state that recalled 2 state senators and forced a third to resign over an ill-advised gun bill will rally to ward off a further intrusion against their rights but those same voters will drown out supporters of SP.

Of the two policy initiatives only SP has any realistic opportunity to actually save lives. Yet, both will suffer an ignominious defeat because fear mongering has down-ticket consequences.

January 12, 2016

I keep seeing the taunt, "Obama hasn't taken away your guns" being offered by people

who continually laud "Melt them down" threads and/or cite Australian/UK gun control models as the way forward for American gun control laws.

In other words, they want guns taken away but then semi-triumphantly claim that no one has taken guns away.

Considering the President's recent EA actually liberalizes access to weapons regulated by the NFA I would be inclined to think those offering the taunt would be upset with the President rather than using his actions as a basis for a taunt.

Can anyone offer an explanation for this seeming inconsistency?

January 11, 2016

I'm a little sick of hearing how it's bad to make blanket accusations by people

making blanket accusations.

It takes a breathtaking level of unmitigated hypocrisy to claim xenophobia is the motivation for people opposing a rape culture that inspires mass sexual assaults.

November 4, 2015

What do when the general a-hole-ish-ness of people gets you down?

It just seems like politics brings out the worst in some people and it's so prevalent.

Sometimes I just don't want to "play" anymore.

October 30, 2015

Should Obama seek authorization through the Congress to satisfy the War Powers Act?

I believe he must.

If he doesn't -- especially after Libya -- the WPA would effectively be dead. A law passed to rein-in the like of Richard Nixon will have been obviated through non-compliance by a Democratic president and non-enforcement by a GOP-led congress that never liked the law. At the end of the day we're saying a US president can commit troops and Congress won't have a say in it except for the politically volatile mechanism of defunding troops already in harm's way.

This is what we have been reduced to. I pray honor and a safe, speedy return to those who obey the orders from the CinC but I'm done with these political types. We're the only ones expected to obey their laws. They're all hypocrites, deceivers and criminals.

October 30, 2015

ColoradoCare backers collect 156,000 signatures for single-payer plan

ColoradoCare backers collect 156,000 signatures for single-payer plan

Proponents of a single-payer health care plan in Colorado collected more than 156,000 signatures to get it on the November 2016 ballot, far more than the 98,492 needed.

The signatures await verification.

The ColoradoCaresYes campaign delivered 27 bushel-sized boxes of petitions in a decommissioned ambulance and wheeled them in on a stretcher Friday morning to the secretary of state. The plan's chief proponent, state Sen. Irene Aguilar, a medical doctor and Democrat from Denver, wore her white lab coat as she pulled along the stretcher.

If it passes, Initiative 20 would replace Obamacare's Colorado health exchange with a plan paid for with a 10 percent "premium tax" on payrolls or other income.

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_29013454/coloradocare-backers-collected-156-000-petitions-single-payer?source=rss



Text of the ballot question --

https://www.sos.state.co.us/pubs/elections/Initiatives/titleBoard/filings/2015-2016/20Final.pdf


There's a lot of back and forth on this. The state's ACA exchange just dumped 80,000 policy holders and is looking like it will not survive much longer. The ballot initiative calls for a 10% payroll tax on all beneficiaries but the governing board can raise that without going through the legislature.
October 21, 2015

Halloween costume advice

I'm a brunette but I'm thinking about bleaching my hair to go as Margot Robbie's portrayal of Harley Quinn --




(Okay, I would need some boobs, too.)

Worth it?

I really like the character.

October 21, 2015

Why "a free state" as opposed to "the state"?

It seems the militia clause speaks to quality of government rather than a particular government. The 2A doesn't indicate the militia is beholden to "the state(s)" but only to an ideal. It is not one of the many policy enforcements arms of the government -- such as the police or military -- but rather a means for people to organize for their common defense.

October 20, 2015

I keep hearing "well-regulated militia" as a precondition to gun ownership.

At the time of the authoring of the 2nd Amendment what were the federal regulations governing the militias?

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