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Friday, September 18, 2015

My Soldiers and Veterans

I posted this in my personal blog in January when American Sniper was in the news. I am putting it here because of the reactions I have received about the piece I posted yesterday about the respect our Veterans deserve. I got some really UGLY replies from Liberals. I realize that some on the left have these opinions. I am also proud to acknowledge that we on the left do not have to agree on everything because we are fortunate enough to be the more intelligent and open-minded party.

Having said that, I compel anyone to read this if you hold contempt for soldiers and veterans because of the wars they have fought in. Please just consider the entire reflection. I wrote it because of my own conflict over what we heard about Chris Kyle.

I don't need anyone to agree with me. But I do need to have at least heard a more thoughtful reply than one which negates the life of a soldier because our Congress is peopled with selfish and heartless human beings who can't seem to ignore opportunities to go to war.



January 27, 2015

So many are going back and forth about the movie, American Sniper. I admit that I haven't yet seen the movie, but I am looking forward to it. I know that it is based on an actual human being. I know that the movie has stirred a lot of debate which is overly simplistic and often overreaching on both sides. Peace, at present, is not an option. So condemning those who fight in this war isn't productive or fair. Conversely, war isn't cool. Violence isn't cool. Every action by every soldier in every situation isn't justified. Soldiers are human beings, and thus, fallible. Looking for a rational middle I repeatedly have one revelation: I don't get to judge soldiers. I have never been to war.

Many soldiers signed up when they saw America attacked on 9/11. It is profound to acknowledge that we actually had a front row seat to this horror in our living rooms and break rooms. All of America, together, witnessed an unbelievable declaration of war. Everyone had their own visceral reaction. I am a peace loving person who always wants a shot at diplomacy. On 9/11? Nope. I knew what happened when the first tower was hit. I looked at Jennifer Cobb, the workmate who will always remain in my memory because of this moment, and went numb. She told me about the first plane. I didn't question if it was an accident, I told her "I know it's Osama bin Laden." I wasn't sure that I was pronouncing his name properly, but that would soon change. No one would live without that name permanently ingrained in the forefront of their minds. That day I wanted war. That day I was glad we had a righty in the White House because I only wanted a hawk in leadership. Any other day, that revelation would be a horror to me. On 9/11? I bore no shame. When the towers fell I told my co-workers, "I hope they use the remaining metal and glass from the towers as shrapnel to blow them up." I knew the name bin Laden. But I knew so little about the Middle East that I thought he led a country. Of course, no country attacked us. We were attacked by a misplaced ideology. Initially we had no understanding of the magnificent, yet simplistic plot or how difficult it would be to find those who had concocted it. As we couldn't go after another country, or their military, we were in a whole new realm of war.

I don't get to judge the soldiers who enlisted in reaction to a genuine driving need to avenge 9/11. They wanted to retaliate for our unprovoked tragedy and protect America. I do, however, get to judge the leaders who exploited the emotional pulse of America and started a war with a country who had absolutely nothing to do with that attack. They used those men and women to battle and die for a cause they didn't sign up for. They invited millionaires to become billionaires by arming our military and rallying Americans behind going to war, any war. It is not the soldiers decision where they go to fight. They signed up under the false assumption that they would be protecting us. Only the leadership could know they were really just making the target on the backs of all Americans larger.

Sadly, a sniper is a very necessary position in today's military, especially considering the groups that attack us. They aren't even countries, let alone bound by the rules of the Geneva Convention. They don't play fair. They don't wear camouflage or have distinctive stripes on their arms. They blend in to their own environment wearing the similar garb of their countrymen. Is it better to have a sniper take out an individual than have a bomb take out an entire neighborhood to get a target? Yes? Then we need snipers. Their targets are hateful, yet creative, motherfuckers who see all Americans (not only soldiers) as targets.

Once in combat the snipers have dangerous people as targets. People talk as if the they are sitting on rooftops taking out all passersby. Of course, that's a pretty dramatic and ignorant assumption. They have very specific targets and objectives. Last night Larry Wilmore had a guest, Sgt. Nicholas Irving, who is a retired sniper. As he talked it occurred to me that it would have to take a very specific mindset to be a sniper. He reiterated the feelings (or lack of) that were attributed to Chris Kyle. He matter-of-factly said that killing is his job and the human being becomes only a target. He didn't regret killing anyone but he regretted not being able to save the comrade who had saved his life. It doesn't make him a monster to say that. It would have to be the perspective of a sniper, right? As a sniper is ultimately a human being with a soul, how else would you have him look at it? Any other perspective would make him crazy. He can't spend time on right vs. wrong, questioning, "How will the targets mother feel? Who will provide for the targets family? Would he carry out his mission if I can't carry out mine?" He can't ask those questions. He has to disassociate to maintain sanity. If he humanized the target he wouldn't be able to do his job.

Snipers have to come back home eventually, right? I can't imagine returning to families and friends and a country who spend so much of their time focusing on first world problems after having seen what they'd seen and done what they'd done. I imagine it's a lot easier to live with themselves and the things they had to do when they are stationed exclusively with people who were living the same experience. I can only imagine how difficult it would be to come home as a hardened soldier who experiences PTSD and be unwilling or unable to talk about the horrors they'd seen with people who are discussing deflated footballs over a BBQ pit.

I can go on for hours about the things I could only imagine about being a sniper or a soldier. That's pretty much my point. I can only imagine. Likewise, any who have watched a movie can only imagine. We can point our fingers at the people who demand that our soldiers fight in places they had no business being or fighting for causes they had no business defending. We can not judge those who were sent and followed orders.

I hate that war exists. Period. I fucking hate it. I hate knowing that it is the fault of our leadership for decades that has made my country and its citizens targets. I hope we never get another reminder of that truth. But we get reminders every week, don't we? We hear about cells that are broken up, attacks in an ally country or even, for fucks sake, Americans who have been brainwashed into joining these movements. Hating war, however, doesn't give me the right to talk shit about the men and women who fight on our behalf. It doesn't escape my consciousness that I watch war from my couch. I don't want to sign up. Do you? No? Then stop bitching. Go out of your way to promote peace and diplomatic politicians. But realize that until we stop being a target, we need our soldiers to be fighting and protecting us. And we will need snipers who have the ability to compartmentalize their thoughts and emotions to enable them to kill people who have vowed to kill you.

You. All Americans. You. Your friends. Your family.

I have a lot of opinions about a lot of things. I have a big mouth and will gladly and joyfully debate the issues of the day. This topic is beyond my understanding, though. This topic is beyond any layperson's understanding. People need to be really thoughtful about where they point their contempt. If you have never had to learn to take another life and lived with the emotional aftermath, then you really need to step back, have thoughtful reflection and consider who you're mad at before you talk shit to or about a soldier.


Thursday, September 17, 2015

Glad You Asked




Today Trump held another rally where he offered the audience no information but continued to promise that he is going to fix everything wrong with our country. One of the audience members asked a question of Trump and told him that the CNN debates were a disgrace because no questions were asked about the veterans health care. He asked if the reason the question wasn't asked was because CNN (which he decided stood for Clinton News Network) didn't like veterans. Of course, I have no knowledge of why one question was given and another wasn't, but I know that the Regressive Party never wants to have an honest discussion about that lest their own voting records be mentioned.

I would respectfully ask the gentlemen at the Trump rally the question I always ask myself:

Why do veterans need charities?

The fact that this even needs to be addressed is disgusting to me. Honestly. The first thing that I always think when I see an ad to raise money for disabled veterans is, "Why is this a charity?" Like of all of the things that our country's taxes are responsible for, taking tremendous care of those who protect and fight for us should be at the top. There should be no need for people to raise funds for the men and women that we have sent off to fight and come home injured or harmed in any way. It makes me cry when I see the commercials of families who are readjusting to a life around their loved one who is altered for life. We did that. We Americans did that. We elected people who elected to go to war and elected not to fund the care of those men and women when they got home.

People join the military for many reasons. They want structure, education, or maybe an opportunity to defend the country. It doesn't matter why they do it. The fact is they sign up. They meet with a recruiter and sign documents to devote their lives, for the next several years or for its remainder, to protecting my country. I love her. I want her protected. I wish they were protecting her from here. And from ally countries. And from ships off of the coasts of countries we want to keep an eye on. I wish that was all that our military was needed for. Sadly, we have been in perpetual war for many years. And protecting my country is a scary undertaking. Signing up today means you have a good chance of going to war. It means you are going to see action. If you want to get an education after having served, you sign up knowing you may not come back. Or, if you do, you may have a serious injury, physical or otherwise. That is such a profound commitment and it is unacceptable that we can allow their care to not be an imperative upon their return.

That is where my country fails. We fail because we elect 'representatives' who are always very anxious to go to war. Any war, it seems. But every time they are offered an opportunity to take care of our military men and women when they get home, they reject it. How is it acceptable to come up with billions of dollars to pay for contracts to build an arsenal many times larger than any other country, but it is not a priority to come up with the monies needed to heal our soldiers once they get home?  It is beyond my comprehension. But people don't pay attention to the way they are voting when they get to DC.

The right is still stuck on telling their constituents that they are the ones who care about the military and our vets. And people continue to couple the party and the military in their minds. There is a big difference between supporting the military (which on the right means passing every bill to initiate war or fund endeavors to strengthen our arsenal) and caring for those in the military. Honestly, I am stunned that the Regressives would have a single voter since they determined the Iran deal was unacceptable before they even read it. They can only hear drumbeats. They only want war. That means lives. That means men and women are being sent to war. It is not just a declaration. It is a huge commitment. Of human beings. And, I dare say, after nearly 15 constant years in battle, they are probably pretty much spent by now. And the followers on the right are rallying behind that idea. Why? Why do you want to go to war again? How could anyone not want to first try diplomacy when the alternative means that Americans will certainly die? But these same 'representatives' have continually voted against Veterans bills every time they come up. It is patriotic to support our troops. It is not patriotic to support those in Congress who would really just like to be in a constant state of war. A differentiation seems to be lost in there somewhere.


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The idea of millions of homeless in America is bad enough, but to understand that many are veterans and it kind of makes it harder to accept. They fought for this country and were then offered such care upon return that they ended up on the streets. Maybe they came home with PTSD. Maybe they ended up with a drinking problem. Maybe they ended up with anger issues and they got kicked out of their house. These were all opportunities to care for our veterans that our VA missed. I, personally, have a sick conspiracy theory that those on the right are deliberately allowing the VA to go to shit so it can be privatized and more millionaires can become billionaires. But I am also aware that some of my conspiracies are a little looney and I can't always determine which are which. Anyway ...

Some of these vets have been chronically homeless and living with mental illness or addictions since Vietnam. Take a quiet moment with that.

Last May the First Lady launched a Mayors Challenge to 300 mayors across the country. They were told to have homes for the 50,000 homeless veterans in America by the end of 2015.  Last year Salt Lake City and Phoenix had found homes for every one of their homeless veterans. In January, New Orleans moved the last known homeless veteran into housing. I got chills typing that. It can be done. The fact that so many of these vets have been chronically homeless and dealing with mental illnesses and addictions since Vietnam is beyond tragic.

The VA is finally starting to do something about  the homelessness of so many veterans. They are beginning in the 25 cities with the largest populations of homeless veterans. Last year from March to August, they had already found housing for 10,000 veterans. The beauty of this program is that it doesn't just offer them a bed. They are given guidance and resources to help them acclimate back into society. That is such a profound transition. You cant just say "here's a bed - get a job." Whatever the issue was that made them homeless needs to be addressed, too. And they are doing that. If you know of someone who might be helped by this initiative, the information can be found here.

The right have all kinds of ideas of what it means to be a Liberal. I couldn't give a shit what they think about me. Whatever they want to think is fine. I don't need my liberalism defined by anyone else. The thing that I am nailed with every day, though, is this bullshit that I think soldiers are baby killers. You don't get to speak for me motherfucker. I am a Liberal. The beauty of being over here on the left is that I get to think for myself. I don't have to be force fed my talking points and become confused over their contradictions. Some people who are extreme on the left say shit about soldiers. I have no use for them and tell them that whenever I am given the opportunity. I love soldiers and veterans. I documented my sincere respect for soldiers in this blog post and don't think I need to defend myself beyond that. And fuck anyone who thinks they get to define my loyalties to them.

I am a little disgusted with myself because I am making a partisan issue about something that should, inherently, be universal. I apologize. I want everyone to be pissed off and contact their elected official, whatever their party affiliation, and demand their support every time you see that the Wounded Warrior Project support a bill. Blow up their phones or fax lines. Send emails. Pester them on Twitter or on their Facebook page to make the rest of their constituents aware. Whatever. Make sure that everyone knows that they are being given an opportunity to care for our veterans and make sure when they vote everyone knows how they voted. You can go here to see who voted for and against. If they were forced to be accountable by all of us they could not sneak around and do this shit.

I have only heard good things about the IAVA (Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America). But there are many other great groups out there working for the care of our veterans. Until we can find a way to compel Congress to give a shit and act accordingly, please go here to donate something in the name of a soldier you know or love (or one you don't even know).

Kisses All Around ...
The Mean Progressive




Wednesday, September 16, 2015

'Pro-Life' 'Fundamentalism' LOL

The Regressives live in a world of opposites where the left are racists and anti-woman. Their narrow minds espouse 'truths' to completely contrast reality with every piece of their platform by demanding only the safest of societies are armed and the weakest provide for families or the welfare of their citizens. Only the basest human beings would demand support of the military where that support only considers those who build arsenals and start wars. We are saddled with daily reminders of their myriad contradictions, and find their arguments so tiresome we can hardly find the energy to bother arguing with people who are so mindless and hateful.

The truth, however, is that we are at a precipice in our battle for human rights and we have no choice but to inform ourselves and make it our mission to inform those in society who don't want to hear it. We have to ignore those who call themselves 'pro-life.' We don't have time to convince them that their ignorance is dangerous. Their ignorance will keep them from ever really understanding that. But their voices are being heard by the millions of Americans who don't want to be bothered to know what is going on. Those Americans only hear the misinformation the Regressive party disseminates and eat the bullshit they are being fed.

Please read this entire piece by Stupidparty Math V Myth and arm yourself to inform those who hear snippets of bullshit and assume it's fact. Please take the time to read this and don't let anyone fall for these lies.

A most sincere thank you to StupidParty Math V Myth for taking the time in putting this together for us. Check out their site here and sign up for future posts.




Pro–lifers and Religious Nutters Collide to Commit Genocide



Being “pro-life” actually means pro-death. It means more people, more women, more babies and more fetuses will die. Stupidity has deadly consequences. Whether we are taking about the economy, foreign policy, the environment, bigotry, or in this instance women’s health—people who promote irrational behavior, people who misrepresent scriptures, people who polarize important issues, must be held to account. Politicians who tap into and excite ignorance should be held to account. Phony Christians must held to account. Stupidparty and its financial backers must be held to account. We need to shine the torch in a way that none of these guilty parties have anywhere to hide.
Stupidparty logic happens to have deadly consequences. By way of example let us look at a standard Stupidparty argument:
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Bush told a group of Evangelical Christians that he would strip the vital health organization of federal funding if he becomes president and said we spend too much money on women’s health services:
“The next president should defund Planned Parenthood,” he said. “The argument against this is, well women’s health issues, you’re attacking, it’s a war on women, and you’re attacking women’s health issues. You could take dollar for dollar, although I’m not sure we need a half a billion dollars for women’s health issues, but if you took dollar for dollar there are many extraordinary fine organizations, community health organizations, that exist to provide quality care for women on wide variety of health issues. But abortion should not be funded by the government, any government, in my mind.”
$500m = about $3 per woman –and that is evidently too much! Let us put this thinking into perspective:
There are so many things that are wrong with this statement. These comments pander to Evangelicals whose political views tend to be the polar opposite of the values of Jesus – i.e, 80% of Evangelicals have no right to call themselves Christians. Voting for an asset stripping, serial lying, misogynist Mormon would indicate a value system the polar opposite of Jesus, thus the polar opposite of Christianity. Let us begin with the bibles actual views on abortion:
God is pro-choice, but not in a nice way—the Bible places no value on fetuses or infants less than one month old:
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And if it be from a month old even unto five years old, then thy estimation shall be of the male five shekels of silver, and for the female thy estimation shall be three shekels of silver. — Leviticus 27:6
Fetuses and infants less than one month old are not considered persons:
Number the children of Levi after the house of their fathers, by their families: every male from a month old and upward shalt thou number them. And Moses numbered them according to the word of the LORD. — Numbers 3:15-16
Yea, though they bring forth, yet will I slay even the beloved fruit of their womb. — Hosea 9:16
Samaria shall become desolate; for she hath rebelled against her God: they shall fall by the sword: their infants shall be dashed in pieces, and their women with child shall be ripped up. —Hosea 13:16
Because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the LORD to blaspheme, the child also that is born unto thee shall surely die. — 2 Samuel 12:14
Tamar thy daughter in law hath played the harlot; and also, behold, she is with child by whoredom. And Judah said, bring her forth, and let her be burnt. — Genesis 38:24
And when he hath made her to drink the water, then it shall come to pass, that, if she be defiled, and have done trespass against her husband, that the water that causeth the curse shall enter into her, and become bitter, and her belly shall swell, and her thigh shall rot: and the woman shall be a curse among her people. And if the woman be not defiled, but be clean; then she shall be free, and shall conceive seed. — Numbers 5:21-21, 27-28
I always feel somewhat uncomfortable using the Old Testament to preach policy – since I find it difficult to respect supposed Christians who use the bible like nut-job Muslims — to cherry pick from the Quran.  I happen to believe that Christians have far less excuse, since their go-to prophet is massively more impressive that the guy the Arab people have latched onto. Ironically it seems most US Christians should be worshiping Mohammad – as by doing so – they would be a great less hypocritical.
A Christian should follow the teachings of Jesus – his actual lessons, unpolluted by various power seeking zealots who have polluted his actual teachings. Nowhere in the New Testament does Jesus discuss abortion. Thus it is not a Christian value. Just like racism, judge-mentalism, pro-death, war mongering, asset stripping, gun toting, misogyny, anti-knowledge, dishonesty—none of these core Stupidparty values are the values of Christ.
Sacred Sperm are living creatures too.
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25 million sperms can be produced in one day by one adult male.
9,150,000,000 are created per year by just one adolescent or adult male.
It takes 75 days of Gods work to create the life in a single Sperm.
Most men, most years, find a way to commit mass spermicidal genocide all the time.
Yes this is often accidental or the fault of a third party – but often it is wanton knowing mass murder – of a living entity that could become the 2nd son of God. But masturbation, premature ejaculation and condoms are not the only villains. For a man who has carefully protected each and every sperm by having intercourse frequently enough to prevent sperm being allowed to die through want of effort – there is another murderous villain to contend with. 
The female body is a veritable merciless killing machine – it thinks nothing of killing off 200,000,000 sperm at a time. It thinks nothing of ignoring and  assassinating its own 400,000 eggs – eggs that all want to find their perfect match and live in harmony. These sperms try so hard to communicate with their beloved egg, to talk about their future together, the sperm  begging for cooler pastures, the egg playing hard to get—saying “come, enjoy my deadly heat.”
“At twenty-one days old, a human embryo is less than two millimeters long or roughly the size of the circle at the end of this sentence.” 
Now, there might be some confusion about the above statement. I mean how big is a full stop?—at the bottom of that question mark.  Well, a full stop might vary by font size, by the reading tool one is using; perhaps it varies by whether the full stop is a boy or a girl, spawn of an American football player or a jockey. It also seems because it is so small it is quite difficult to measure anyway. So I decided I needed to create an image that would allow the human mind to put this issue into perspective. Let me begin by providing a picture of my very favorite treat, my addiction.
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These are chocolate rainbow nonpareils. I love to have a combination of Milk, Dark and White chocolate—and it is absolutely taboo to have simply white balls on top. I love each color, I do not discriminate. It is almost a tragedy that I cannot prevent their imminent doom.
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I adore each and every chocolate, each and every sprinkle. Now, see how that dark blue one has been lovingly placed on the ruler, to the far left top corner of this ruler. This ruler shows centimeters—which are way smaller than an inch. The blue sprinkle covers one millimeter. A human embryo at one week would be 90 percent smaller than that lonely sprinkle—with an estimated size of 0.1 millimeters. Bigger than a speck of dust but smaller than a full stop as it might appear in a typical old-fashioned print book
Now we will put this entire pro-life fundamentalist diarrhea into perspective. The Female egg after conception: Picture
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Contraception (even after conception) and sex education are vital tools for empowering women, preventing poverty, disease and death. Teaching abstinence is not only pointless -but it is deadly. Teens deserve knowledge that can keep them healthy – to act otherwise is criminal. Researchers at the University of Washington in Seattle found that teenagers who received some type of comprehensive sex education were 60 percent less likely to get pregnant or get someone else pregnant. And in 2007, a federal report showed that abstinence only programs had “no impacts on rates of sexual abstinence.”  Societies that repress women tend to be unstable, violent, religiously rigid – and all this nurtures an environment primed for war, disease and death. 
In the 2015 Fox Stupidparty debate virtually all candidates were rabidly pro-death. For example Rubio would be quite happy to allow a woman to die, he claims that there are plenty of ways of avoiding pregnancy anyway. But the problem is  – these guys are all gut and no brain: 
During a 2012 political fight over the scope of Obamacare’s contraception mandate — which requires all insurance plans to cover preventive services including contraception for women — Rubio co-sponsored The Blunt Amendment, which according to The New York Times would have “let employers and health insurance companies deny coverage for contraceptives and other items they object to on religious or moral grounds.” The amendment was defeated 51 to 48.
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So basically women must die –because of a guy with an opinion. How about this before forming ignorant infantile opinions – and before resorting to terrorism, how about getting some knowledge? Why not consider helping organizations that actually help women with their health? Ever wonder why misogynist Catholic priests have a very different opinion about these issues than the nuns –the nuns that actually help poor people with their health issues, with their pregnancy issues? Nuns soon learn that dogmatic opinions do far more harm than good. But nuns sometimes suffer the consequences of male stupidity:
As reported by The Nation:
In 2010, Sister Margaret McBride, an administrator in a Catholic Hospital in Phoenix, was fired and excommunicated after she approved a first-trimester abortion for a woman with life-threatening pulmonary hypertension. What happens in Catholic hospitals when there’s no Sister Margaret willing to risk the bishops’ wrath? With conscience clauses expanding to cover not just individual doctors but whole hospitals, a pregnant woman may find her care is being dictated not by standard health protocols but by a religion she doesn’t even follow. Savita was a Hindu, after all. What about her conscience?
To help, you have to stop being judgmental. Not everyone is a clone of Stupidparty people, not everyone is in that very exclusive club of no nothings that cannot accept the views of people from outside their parochial club.
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Violent crimes have fallen by half over the last twenty years. This trend has nothing to do with more guns. I prove this here. There are however increasing gun deaths and mass shootings – all caused by America’s infantile Gun culture which I explain here and here. So if you tolerate the NRA agenda –you are pro-death. So what does explain reduced violent crime? Well there are numerous reasons –one of them being Roe V. Wade. Various books have been written on the subject – but in short making abortion legal has saved countless families from destitution – and that leads to a more stable family life.
Jeb!!! and the rest of the clowns want to defund planned parenthood, But of course he has no interest in the actual facts:
  • Planned Parenthood gets no funding from the government to perform abortions.
  • Abortions represent about 3% of their activities.
  • Congress defunded Acorn –who had done nothing wrong –this action has since been deemed unconstitutional — to target a specific entity because of political opportunism.
  • Thus defunding Planned Parenthood, who have also done nothing wrong, would surely also be unconstitutional.
  • Planned Parenthood health centers focus on prevention: 80 percent of our clients receive services to prevent unintended pregnancy.
  • Help prevent approximately 516,000 unintended pregnancies each year.
  • Provides nearly 400,000 Pap tests and nearly 500,000 breast exams each year, critical services in detecting cancer.
  • Provides nearly 4.5 million tests and treatments for sexually transmitted infections, including 700,000 HIV tests.
  • Planned Parenthood affiliates provide educational programs and outreach to 5 million young people and adults
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Planned parent helps women, saves lives and reduces the demand for abortion. They are the polar opposite of the fundamentalist pro-lifers:
  • About 40,290 women in the U.S. are expected to die in 2015 from breast cancer, though death rates have been decreasing since 1989. Women under 50 have experienced larger decreases. These decreases are thought to be the result of treatment advances, earlier detection through screening, and increased awareness.
  • Maternity deaths avoided 28 x 5 = 290 per year.
  • Women whose cervical cancers were found by a Pap test had a 92% cure rate. The cure rate fell to 66% among women who were diagnosed because of symptoms.
  • By knowing you have AIDS or a sexually transmitted disease, the vast majority of people will not put other peoples live at risk. Knowledge saves lives. Prayer and pro-Lifers save zero lives.
  • AIDs in Africa people were taught abstinence, often at the insistence of US Religious charities. African also were encouraged to have faith in prayer and myth. In America everyone had access to proper education and facts.
End result in Africa 1,000,000 people die of AIDS every year. In America less than 14,000 people die of AIDS every year. If you are determined to block contraception and education in Africa – you are guilty of manslaughter on a massive scale.
Jeb supports efforts to allow myopic religious twats from having to allow their employees access to affordable contraception – the very same people who promote deadly faith and prayer as a singular solution. Obama will continue to outwit these idiots on this issue, but electing a Stupidparty leader as president would have deadly consequences.
Oh you think Jeb is some sort of moderate Stupidparty clown? You still believe that such a person can actually exist in side the Stupidparty? 
“I’m probably the most pro-life governor in modern times,” Jeb boasted and he’s not kidding:
After all, we’re talking about a man who once put the life of a disabled woman who’d been raped at risk by intervening legally to force her to carry her child to term — a move a Florida court later found illegal. Despite the fact that the woman is severely disabled, has been raped, and might die if allowed to give birth, Bush felt that the appointment of a guardian for her was not appropriate. Instead, he moved to stop the appointment of the woman’s guardian until a second guardian could first be appointed — specifically, a guardian for the fetus.
In 2005, Bush fought to prevent a pregnant 13-year-old girl, who was a ward of the state, from having an abortion. He was overruled by a judge, and CNN later reported that Bush’s ‘abortion activism shocked some state officials who believed he was reaching beyond the powers of his office.’
Jeb wanted $1 million of the state Department of Health’s $5.7 million family planning allocation to create education grants for chastity counseling. This would have mirrored some federally funded programs in the state that told teens to wait until marriage to have sex, without discussing birth control methods. Those programs, many of which were privately run by religious groups, operated under names like Best Friends, Sex Can Wait, and Everyone’s Not Doing It.
The request would have marked the first time the state would have funded an abstinence-based counseling program. The idea was criticized by sex education advocates and legislators who said teaching abstinence didn’t work. They also said diverting $1 million would keep many poor women from getting HIV tests, pap smears, birth control counseling and other services at clinics and county health departments.
The St. Petersburg Times reported in January 2003:
Planned Parenthood of Southwest and Central Florida lost $124,000 last year from its family planning division. Bush diverted the funds to abstinence-only educational programs. Now teens who use Planned Parenthood have a $15 co-pay and must pay $7 for birth control. “We do charge the teens now,” said LaWanda Walker, public affairs coordinator for Planned Parenthood of Southwest and Central Florida. “That we really, really hate. You need to be able to have services and make it convenient.”
In a tweet, he added, “In line with my FL record – we absolutely must defund PP and redirect those funds to other women’s health orgs.” 
But Jeb did not redirect Planned Parenthood money into community health centers providing birth control, Pap tests, and other family planning services as he suggested. He diverted money to abstinence-only education and spent millions on crisis pregnancy centers, which are non-medical, religiously motivated organizations dedicated to convincing women not to have abortions.
The charter school (trying to turn education into a for profit exercise) that was once Jeb pride and joy is now a trash-filled ruin in the Liberty City neighborhood of Miami. It was also the place where the presumptive 2016 presidential candidate found it necessary to remove sex education from the curriculum and replace it with “character education.”
Stephanie Schriock, president of the group Emily’s List, said in an essay on Medium that Bush spent his two terms curbing women’s reproductive and health rights.
It is impossible it appears to get more extreme on abortion than Jeb. He must really care about that sacred sperm. He can really say to that idiotic base –yes I am your man –look at me.  Like Bush’s imaginary conversation with Billy Graham that led to his invented Christian rebirth, born again for a  Jesus who loves the 1%—could it possible that Jeb is just cloning a successful Bush strategy. This is a fair question in the light of the fact that Jeb “ was director of a philanthropy that gave tens of millions of dollars to Planned Parenthood and financed its advocacy of “unrestricted access to abortion” around the world. The charity also approved money to global abortion providers while he sat on its board.”
In 2010, Jeb was named one of the founding directors of the Bloomberg Family Foundation, established as a tax-exempt foundation to advance the vision of former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. He resigned from the board at the end of 2014 to prepare his presidential campaign.
In March of 2014, the Bloomberg Philanthropies announced a $50 million undertaking to expand “reproductive health,” including lobbying foreign nations to loosen restrictions on abortion.
Bloomberg announced a major partnership with Planned Parenthood Global to train and equip abortion activists in pro-life countries. Here Is Bloomberg talking about the vital needs of women’s health, the devastating backward steps taken by various mental midget Red State Governors, and his massive personal efforts to counter act the absurd activities of his own board member Jeb.
No Jeb, you are all talk, no substance, and an empty vessel.
But when it comes to killing people –we have only just begun. Stupidparty does not like Obamacare and does not like the Medicaid expansion. We need to look at what this really means”
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The relatively small costs to the states should be easily offsets by a) in 2008 State and local Governments spent $10.6b caring for uninsured people in hospitals – assuming medical inflation of 5% per annum and increasing numbers of uninsured of say 5% per annum – this would mean that that $10.6b would increase to $33b for 2020.
Now let us make the following assumptions for Obamacare – we will keep medical inflation at 5% compound per year and we will also assume that the uninsured continued to increase by 5% per year through 2012. After that we shall assume that the insured fall by 20% initially then by 40%. This might appear aggressive –but only if you forget that the number of uninsured was projected to carry on increasing quite rapidly if there had been no reform. So actually this number is mathematically conservative since the number of uninsured is trending down rapidly. Therefore the chart below illustrates actual cost savings the States could expect relative to the scenario of having no reform.
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I should mention that the above is theory. In reality Obamacare has run into a real life problem that will need to be addressed. The success of Obamacare has created a bottleneck that is presently increasing emergency room visits. On the one hand, this is good, because people need such treatment in an affordable manner. But this is the not the most cost-effective scenario. The problem is being created by a lack of health care physicians—and thus a significant percentage of doctors struggle to take on new patients. A lack of interface time, and ability to see one’s doctor in a timely manner had been a growing problem, even before the implementation of Obamacare. This is a bottleneck that needs to be tackled.
But these massive savings are only part of the equation. The fact of the matter is that if people have access to affordable healthcare, they can then act upon health issues before they have a need to go to the emergency room in the first place. Thus the body gets fixed faster and cheaper, less death and disease, a healthier more productive work force, less healthcare bankruptcies – creditors get paid. But most important is people live, they get cured, and they do not have to live in pain or in fear.
It is not as if we have to guess—any one remember Massachusetts?

Massachusetts Shows That Expanding Coverage Reduces Other Health Care Costs

Massachusetts’ experience with its health reform efforts offers strong evidence that expanding coverage under a comprehensive health reform plan can lead to sizeable reductions in state costs for uncompensated care.
Massachusetts enacted legislation in 2006 to provide nearly universal health care coverage.  The legislation combined a Medicaid expansion with subsidies to help low and moderate-income residents purchase insurance, an employer responsibility requirement, and a requirement for individuals to obtain coverage.  All of these also are core elements of the Affordable Care Act.
With the expansion of affordable health insurance options and the institution of an individual mandate, spending on uncompensated care decreased significantly in Massachusetts.  As part of its health reform effort, the state replaced its Uncompensated Care Pool (also known as “Free Care”) with the Health Safety Net, which provides financial support to public hospitals and community health centers that serve low-income residents who are uninsured or underinsured or who have significant medical needs.  In 2008, the first full year of health reform implementation, Health Safety Net payments were $252 million, or 38 percent, less than the previous year’s Uncompensated Care Pool payments.a
 StupidParty blind dogma is deadly –it kills people, countless life is killed, primarily by pro-death crowd. But all they care about is this:Picture
Maternity Related Deaths
While 99 percent of such maternal deaths occur in developing countries, the United States is the only country in the world in which maternal deaths increased between 1990 and 2013. In 2013, 28 women were dying for every 100,000 births, compared to 12 women for every 100,000 births in 1990.
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By way of example compare Israel with the USA. Stupidparty today feels a kindred spirit with Netanyahu –actually this has only happened because the love that Netanyahu has disrespected Obama an because the stupidparty has been corrupted by big money. But Stupidparty disciples cannot connect the dots. But maybe they should connect this dot:
The nation’s Health Ministry commission, led by Dr. Yonatan Halevy, last week announced its state-subsidized “health basket,” the package of medications and services that all Israeli citizens are entitled to under the nation’s health care system. It was approved by the cabinet on Sunday. The health basket is analyzed and amended on an annual basis, and among the many additional treatments to be offered to Israelis in 2014 are free-of-charge abortions for women ages 20-33.
Israel has always had a liberal stance on abortion, allowing women facing medical emergencies or those who are victims of rape or abuse to receive subsidies to help them terminate their pregnancies. Outside of those regulations, women can apply for abortions for reasons ranging from an emotional or mental threat caused by the pregnancy or for not being married to the baby’s father. All women who seek to end a pregnancy must appear before a three-member committee to state their case, but 98 percent of requests are approved. Women under the age of 20, or over the age of 40, were also previously eligible for subsidized abortions, regardless of the reason.
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A study by the Roosevelt Institute shows that U.S. states with high poverty rates have maternal death rates 77 percent higher than states with lower levels of poverty. Women with no health insurance are four times more likely to die during pregnancy or in childbirth than women who are insured.
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So where is the safest place to have a baby?
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Notice that Florida is a Blue State –so how come stupidparty rules and Stupidity reigns?
Let us look at totally the totally avoidable deaths; these deaths are caused by Stupidparty Governors playing politics –except in Virginia where a rigged local congress can override the Governor.
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Notice that Maine, Virginia and Wisconsin are Blue States –so how come Stupidparty rules and Stupidity reigns.
So there appear to be four Blue States that are also putting the health of their constituents way below the importance of attracting big time donations from the oligarchical donors, and getting cheap votes by pandering the bigots and the ignorant who have been brainwashed into voting against their interests.
In three of the four States – their constituents suffer this miserable and deadly out come because a specific cheating technique that Stupidparty uses to disenfranchise the electorate. On this occasion I am not referencing Voter Suppression – but Gerrymandering – now look at this chart.
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We have discussed how many lives Planned Parenthood saves and or make better. Now let us look what happens when a respected charity gets hijacked by Stupidparty logic.
Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation
Nancy Binker, a prominent figure in the Texas GOP, found that she had to cope with a personal crisis. Her sister had died of breast cancer, and suddenly healthcare issues became important. So she cofounded the amazingly successful Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. It was a great cause, born out of pain from a person who now had good reason to care, who had put pettiness aside.  But over time success spoils the chemistry, Stupidparty thinking resurfaces, and that thinking concluded that bringing an insidious, myopic political agenda to a beloved charity was appropriate. Karen Handle, having lost her effort to become governor of Georgia, is invited to the cancer charity. Oblivious to the fact that a fundamentalist stance on abortion can only lead to polarization – thus, making the goal of less abortions less achievable – Karen Handle uses her Stupidparty-thinking skill set to encourage the foundation to cancel its relationship with the respected charity Planned Parenthood, who plays a limited role in abortions. This created an uproar. The charity reversed itself after three days, and Karen Handle resigns. Undaunted, Handle writes a book about the bullies at Planned Parenthood and goes on to come in third in the Stupidparty primary for the 2014 open senate seat in Georgia.
The point here is that while reducing abortions is a laudable goal, attaching an extreme viewpoint onto a fundamentalist religious bandwagon that actually has no foundation in the teachings of Jesus is not so laudable. While I have problems with both pro-life and pro-choice sloganeering, it just strikes me that the evangelically inspired pro-lifers in every other aspect are really pro-death. What do I mean by that?  Pro-lifers can rarely be heard on the subject of the actual death penalty, of war, or on affordable healthcare. 
The proof of Handle’s sad effort was to be in the pudding. Stupidparty is not so good at charity unless it begins at home. Bringing Stupidparty thinking to the Susan G. Komen Foundation did not work out so well, especially for people whose lives may depend on the charity. Annual revenues 2013 fell from $348m to $270m.
Meanwhile, the problems for the charity are ongoing, women preferring to contribute to properly motivated charities. At the very time the foundation was having to cancel its walks, Brinker is securing a 64% pay rise to $684,000.  Having married and divorced Norman Brinker, the founder of the Steak and Ale, Bennigan’s, and later taking over the Chili’s restaurant chains, “Brinker doesn’t need the money, as she made out like a bandit in her 2003 divorce….She jets between her home in the Ritz Carlton in Washington DC and her second home in Palm Beach, Florida.” (Palm Beach happens to be the hive of Stupidparty support. I am not sure why anyone would contribute to this charity – since there are better options.)
There is so much wrong with Stupidparty.  Stupidparty thinking, ignorant mythical thinking, does not simply destroy the economy – but it kills. The more pro-life one tries to be – when your views are based on low hanging baseless dogma, countless woman die and countless people die – not just in the USA – but across the globe. On issues of life and death – how does  Stupidparty perform?
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Trumps Big Endorsement: MSNBC



The hardest part of my having determined to give up on watching MSNBC is my sincere love of Rachel Maddow. I have loved her since she started her show on Air America with Chuck D and followed her right into MSNBC. Although she is a Rhodes Scholar, Rachel never talks down to her audience. She opens every show with a good ten minute story about whatever her main topic of the day will be and I always end up having learned something contextual about the issue that was either foreign or, at least, much more in depth than I had understood it before. If I had to give up one thing in my daily life that would hurt more than Rachel, it would probably be air. But I meant what I said the other day. I have to give up MNSBC. The formula of an approachable smarty pants with unparalleled wit and sensibility was one MSNBC should have been proud of. Her ratings have traditionally been the highest on the network and one would think that would merit her some respect from the brass. I have a feeling even her strength and viewership are irrelevant to the Comcast/MSNBC executives who seem intent on alienating their audience and promoting the narrow conservatism of Fox and the mindless punditry of CNN.

I woke up this morning to find I had received several messages from readers telling me that I had to go online and see what happened on Rachel's show last night. Fortunately I'd forgotten to turn off the notifications for the shows I always record and it was still on my DVR. The part of me that felt like I was going through a painful breakup was kind of relieved to get to see her this morning. But the part of me who knew the break up was for a good reason was soon rekindled, as well.

The historical preface to the story was just as compelling as ever. She told us about a very shady character, Joel Arends, who had been alleged to have deliberately condemned the candidacy of Annette Bosworth, a Republican candidate for US Senate in South Dakota in 2014 by, as her attorney, creating a scenario where she signed documents which would end up finding her being tried for 12 felonies. Initially the idea of this plot sounded far-fetched, but by the end it seemed completely plausible. This man who had been the attorney is now running a SuperPac with $30 (not a misprint) in its account called Veterans for a Strong America. This SuperPac was having a fund-raiser last night where the Trump speech was to have been given. It turns out there are no veterans remotely associated with this Pac and he is smart enough to know that if you put that one word in anything, one can easily convince the least among us to excitedly support them and ask absolutely no questions about their creditworthiness or their intentions.

To no (intelligent) person's surprise, although this was supposed to have been a foreign policy speech by Trump, he had nothing to say about policy or anything else. He passed out his stupid ball caps in camouflage to the audience and rambled for 20 minutes but he told the press he would be doing foreign policy so it was covered and now America knows that some bullshit Pac having nothing to do with actual veterans (aside from publicly condemning John McCain for having been to blame for Trumps recent comments dismissing his service and having been a POW) is endorsing Trump. Glorious.

Sadly, what was to follow might as well have been the MSNBC endorsement of Trump, as well. The Rachel Maddow Show, after playing the Trump rally in its entirety, invited Steve Schmidt (yes, that Steve Schmidt) on to offer Regressive talking points and validity of Trumps candidacy. I was so depressed to see that Rachel had gone on to devote the show to free Trump rally coverage which is what Chris Hayes had done the night before and ended my devotion to MSNBC.

Upon reflection, it looks as if Rachel did her very best to give her audience what they expect. I am sure she did not get to choose who would come on to offer the counter-narrative to the intelligent conversation she was offering America. Schmidt, after admitting that there was no mention of foreign policy, applauded his efforts to remind the Republican voters that President Obama has failed the country. He told us that the morons who love Trump do so because they are sick of the promises the regular candidates from the right make but never fulfill about their plans to ruin the country and celebrate him because he is not taking lobbyist dollars. He, of course, made no mention of the fact that he has just squirmed in bed with this veteranless Pac and given a speech at a fundraiser which will, undoubtedly, go to his campaign.

Not only did Schmidt absolve Trump for having never given any cohesive policy information in his policy speech by telling us, "There is precedent for a Presidential campaign running on a secret plan. Richard Nixon, of course, in 1968." (Nixon/secrets - brilliant analogy we did not get to delve further into), but he then went on to compare Trump's followers to Bernie Sanders'. Because. Yeah.

Schmidt told Rachel that even though Trump really had nothing important to say, it doesn't take away from the fact that it was compelling television. I'm sorry. Is that the objective of a news organization? Apparently. And the executives at MSNBC were smart enough to invite Schmidt on to explain that to us. They have been offering us mind-numbing punditry from both he and Nicolle Wallace for years now. When they finally manage to get rid of the handful of wonderful hosts left on MSNBC, I fully expect to hear that they have a new show called "We Tried to Feed You Palin - Now Eat This Shit."

If you, like me, will hold on to a dream that our voices can actually be heard, please PLEASE click [HERE] go sign this petition and forward to everyone you know demanding Comcast/MSNBC be thoughtful about their choice to bastardize a once loved network.