NOT!!! 

Just thought I would give this post a title to get your attention and provoke a little anger and hopefully effect you enough to call that Congress critter, or the White House, AGAIN, to advocate for a public option.  I have been thinking long and hard about this Trigger Option and it just seems like such BS.  It's a totally contrived designation of "Bad Enough" that suggests it is not bad enough already.  We'll take effective action when it really gets bad, and this is not bad enough.  Essentially, 44,000 people dying needlessly in this a nation purported to be the "greatest nation on Earth" is not bad enough. 

For whom?!?!?! 

In my humble opinion, this is already bad enough.  I'm not at all keen on the idea of designating a trigger to give the health insurance thieves another chance.  They have had their chances, and they have failed miserably in providing services.  Did they have no warning people would rebel and reject the notion that they were the only source of help, their private corporation, and that we could not help ourselves and each other after being so completely abused at their hands?  Frankly, I think they never considered it as a possibility, but there were warnings.  They've witnessed Medicare and Medicaid develop in response to a deplorble lack of health services.  They've seen Clinton take a run at changing the system.  Why?  Because it desperately needed change.  Why?  Because it would not, and could not, change itself.  Now we want to give them yet another chance?  Didn't the threat of Clinton's efforts influence them sufficiently to moderate their greed?

How many dead are too many?

I'm just wondering what the trigger will be?  I'm in favor of a body count, if we need to designate a trigger.  If we lack any capacity to judge the behavior of the health insurance industry and its determination to stop healthcare reform, and we feel we must give them one more chance, let's count the bodies.  Evidently, there are those who think the lives already lost should not be sufficient to take away the reins from these malevolent corporate beast.

I am not in agreement with any monetary consideration related to premiums or any other financial measure because we have seen how the data can be so easily skewed and manipulated.  We should also note that a Progressive will not inhabit the White House indefinitely and we need something soon to ensure it survives the next Progressive fall from grace, the next inevitable moment of human weakness.  What if we have a trigger mechanism, and the President in power declines to pull that trigger?  Much the same, the previous President ignored the regulations in place to allow his friends and acquaintances to pilfer the treasures of massive financial institutions.  How can we put so much faith in an unknown future when the past reveals so perfectly clear that these industries have no intention of playing fair?

This changes NOW!

We have it in our reach to make a fundamental change in the way we obtain health care.  We have the precursors of Medicare and Medicaid that show us how to achieve a decent program providing services to the American people - ALL THE PEOPLE!!!  We have the experience of making concessions so fresh in our memories with the oh-so-quaint "donut hole".  Why was this not named "The Bermuda Triangle", where qualified people somehow disappear, and then mysteriously reappear, all the less suited to take care of themselves, much the poorer, with even less the capacity to turn things around then ever before in their lives.  These predators feasted on our seniors, and now we are discussing a trigger somewhere in the future?!?!

44,000 dead.  There is NOTHING wonderful about triggers. 

It seems to me that the GOP is dead, but doesn't know it yet. They are fighting as if they have a strong force behind them, but because of their reliance on God to support them, they are blinded to the reality that it actually takes people to be successful.   This is the only explanation I have as to why the GOP has decided Upstate New York is a good place to drive home the Far Out Right agenda.  It is a fool's errand to believe their outsider candidate, Doug Hoffman, can succeed.  His failure will be the final straw that broke the elephant's back in this made-for-TV political drama, set in a place no oen gave much import.  [It's kind of like Gettysburg in that regard.]

The GOP has their candidate chosen by the people of Upstate NY, in a district that has not elected a democrat since dang near the Civil War!   But the Uber-Party GOP has decided that the New York selection, Dede Scozzafava, is not conservative enough to join their ranks in Congress, as they understand the meaning of that term.  So the Uber-Party has this guy Hoffman, who does not even live in that district and knows nothing of their needs, suited up to challenge her as an independent.  Many of the shakers and movers in what's left of the GOP are lining up to endorse him, because he loves God more then Scozzafava, which means he is detached from reality.  That detachment from reality has become the hallmark of the GOP of late.  [Think Saddam linked to 9/11, Saddam with WMD, what climate change?, and etc.]

Please note, when I suggest "loves God more" and "detached from reality", what I mean is that the God-test, like the neo-con litmus test, demands one declare things as factual that have no evidence in reality. [Think Creationism vs. Evolution].  For me, the love of God and detachment from reality are not always a concurrent condition.  I can say that in Upstate, evolution and Christianity are not mutually exclusive.  However, in the GOP of the 21st century, it seems to be so.  This is a recent phenomenon.

What it seems to me the GOP is ignoring, and Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins are keenly aware, is that the Northeast is not like the South or MidWest.  People are more independent, coming from arguably the birthplace of the American Revolution.  This is where they really had the Tea Party.  Upstate New York is the home of Fort Ticonderoga and Saratoga.  People do not abrogate their independence to their pastors here like they do elsewhere, and tolerate that pastor making political speeches from the podium.  They go to church to talk about God and to the pub to talk about politics!  [Think Hillary doing shots in Pennsylvania]   They are also highly educated, or at least respect people who are, which is abhorrent to the masses in the GOP.

The above comments are all generalizations, I know, so let's do a little fact check here.  In the Northeast in 2008, every seat in Congress turned blue.  It was a landslide muffled by the sound of the Great One giving a speech in Chicago.  Snowe and Collins are going to be battling for their political lives when they are up for reelection and the NY-23rd will be key in their making up their minds as to how to vote on the HCR reform bill.  If the Fighting 23rd goes blue, we have our 60!  If it goes Red, nothing is certain, but if the Independent wins, the HCR fight may be lost this time around ... again.   

The smart money will bet that the 23rd turns blue.  If anyone has any idea what the Northeast values, it is their independence and these folks coming from as far away as Alaska to tell them who they favor will not sway many to their cause.  It is not the cause of Upstate NY.  They do not wish to have Creationism be the only explanation for this world, although they are not opposed to the Bible.  The Bible is good reading on Sunday, but come Monday they have to get back to work and they know they need science and reality for that.  So, as the GOP is lost in the fantasy world of the Neo-Cons and their effusive declarations of faith, Upstate NY will reassert their independence and the GOP will succumb to it's decision a few years ago to dance with the devil, Prince of Lies.  It is written.