The absurdity of ‘free market health care’

Cartoonist Ruben Bolling captures well the absurdity of the idea that health care should be left to the so-called ‘free market’ (in reality a monopoly or quasi-monopoly market) and that each of us should shop around to find the best possible health insurance for our families. Health care is vastly more complicated than pretty much anything else in our lives. Access to basic health care should be universal and free and paid for by the government out of our taxes. It is just that simple.

Tom the Dancing Bug 1343 chagrin falls 20 – free market health care

All hail the Dear Leader!

Donald Trump had his first full cabinet meeting yesterday, almost five months into his administration, with that fact alone showing how poorly his administration is run. And to top it off, the meeting seemed designed to praise the Dear Leader in a manner that would have made even North Korea’s Kim Jong Un blush. Stephen Colbert describes what happened, and it is interesting (if gag-inducing) to see how far people, even those who are arrogant in other settings, are willing to debase themselves when they are close to someone with power over them.
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John Oliver on the Trump-Comey exchange and the British elections

In addition to reviewing James Comey’s testimony and Donald Trump’s bizarre response to it, he also gives his take on the British elections and the complicated nature of the upcoming Brexit negotiations that begin this week. Theresa May said that she called elections three years early in order to be in a stronger position to negotiate. But now May’s failed gamble makes her weaker since her loss of a majority means she will need to get the approval of the DUP for her positions. He explains the difference between what is being called ‘hard Brexit’ and a ‘soft Brexit’. We also learn a lot more about Lord Buckethead who challenged Theresa May for her seat.
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Another victim of the UK elections – Donald Trump’s visit

News has leaked that Donald Trump, who loves to boast about how tough he is, has decided to put his state visit to the UK on hold because of the real possibility of large-scale protests, buoyed by the Labour party’s strong showing in the elections (they got 40% of the vote to just 42% for the Conservatives) and by Jeremy Corbyn’s socialist agenda that is everything that Trump opposes.
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The amoral and sinister clown

Brent Larkin used to be the director of the editorial page of the Cleveland Plain Dealer before he retired and now has a weekly column that appears on Sundays. He is someone whom I consider to be a conservative and during his tenure the editorials tended to favor conservative causes and endorse conservative candidates. In last Sunday’s column, he reflected on what he had learned on a recent overseas trip about how other countries view the US and Donald Trump, and that they, unlike his supporters in the US, see him as the “mean, small man he really is”.
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Michelle Wolf gives Megyn Kelly her comeuppance

After wallowing in the mud at Fox News for a decade and reaping the huge rewards of being just another of their attack dogs, faithfully repeating the party line and viciously attacking people who disagreed with it when she was not being utterly ridiculous (she once made the claim that Santa Claus was white), Megyn Kelly has now moved to NBC and is trying to pass herself off as serious journalist. On her new show she landed an interview with Russian president Vladimir Putin.
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Britain – still not reeling or cowering

In the US, any terror attack sends the media into a frenzy of fear mongering and as a result people here tend to be in a state of permanent fear. But as I have said many times before, Americans don’t seem to realize that people in other countries seem to be made of sterner stuff than those who live in the ‘home of the brave’ and take these awful acts in stride. It is not that they minimize the tragedies but that they don’t let themselves be paralyzed by them.
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