Congressional Republicans: Party before country (Update)

UPDATE (09/22/17): I think I've discovered why the horrible Graham/Cassidy bill is being pushed so hard. It appears the Koch Brothers will give the GOP over $400 million ONLY if they repeal Obamacare and pass a tax reform. As usual, it's all about the money! Pretty monstrous to want to hurt millions of souls for millions of dollars...

It absolutely boggles my mind that the Republicans in Congress are so hell-bent on repealing the Affordable Care Act (ACA), despite the horrible end results of vastly increased insurance payments and the loss of millions having coverage. This in turn will lead to God knows how many deaths. All to put more money in the pockets of the 1%. And they don't need it!

WTF?!? Who are these miscreants that have no heart? As one person put it, they consider health care a commodity, not a right. I'm sorry, but every single human being on this planet has the right to live and to get what they need to prolong that life. Period. Even the cretins pushing this repeal.

What's even more amazing than the cold-hearted bastards trying to implement this is that their constituents keep voting them in office. Who are those people? I can't believe they are thinking that their Senator voted to have people die just to give more money to the wealthy is good cause to re-elect them. Are these people ignorant? Stupid? Uncaring? I just don't get it.

Suffice it to say, I truly believe that the only way to get some sensibility in all this is to have Congress go so overboard enacting and repealing laws that their constituents are directly and very adversely affected. Maybe, just maybe, they will then see the light.

Until the populace "gets it," we will continue to go downhill as a country. And we are very down the hill already. It may soon be too late to climb back up. Some people believe that to be true now.

One last thing: A pox on the 46% of the electorate who chose not to exercise their right to vote last year. Apathy will be the death of us.

MSNBC and CNN getting their rocks off on "weather porn"

I gotta say it. This wall-to-all coverage of the impending Hurricane Irma hit on Florida by cable news is atrocious. As Stephen King's wife put it: "Weather porn." Come on!

There are too many serious issues going on that TV news should be addressing. Let the locals handle the brunt of the impending disaster. I'm perfectly fine with coverage by cable news on this event. Just not wall-to-wall.

I realize ratings has to be the driving force. But once again, as they have for decades now, upper management doesn't give a goddamn about serving the public interest, just how much money can be made over the misery of others.

The other thing I've noticed is how the networks are virtually ignoring the Climate Change angle on this. I've been dipping in on MSNBC and CNN since the constant hurricane coverage began, and it was not until last night that I heard ANYTHING on how Climate Change is impacting this hurricane, as well as last week's Harvey, or the fact that there are an unprecedented three hurricanes churning the waters at the same time.

I would like to give kudos to Ali Velshi of MSNBC for bringing up Climate Change last night during his special broadcast. Since I don't watch the weather porn 24/7, I have no idea if Climate Change has been brought up or how much time has been devoted to it. All I know is that with the exception of Mr. Velshi, I haven't heard one word whenever I was watching. One would think it would be an important part of the discussion.

I love how the EPA head said that now was not the time to discuss Climate Change. Of course, for him there will be no "time" to discuss it. It reminds me when there is a horrific shooting it's always "now is not the time to discuss gun control" by the horrible people advocating the proliferation of weapons.

I've severely limited my MSNBC and CNN viewing time and will continue to for at least a week. I mean we will need to go wall-to-wall right after the hurricane is gone, right? We need to observe and interview the suffering of the Residents, too. I'll get the other important news affecting the whole nation's lives elsewhere.

Once again, I know this is an important story and I feel for the residents about to be hammered by Irma. I truly hope that everyone will be all right. But let's just tone down the coverage a bit and focus on other important issues. OK, networks?

"Live tweeting" World War II

A while back, I got fed up with the cable news networks. Here is a good explanation of why:



So I've been getting most of my news through Twitter. I follow various accounts that cover all my interests. I find it much more engaging, and the comments are an absolute riot!

I bring this up because I discovered an account that just started "live tweeting" World War II! Yep, whoever is controlling this account is pretending that Twitter existed during the war and is providing tweets in "real time," i.e., on Sept 1 (the date that I'm writing this) there are tweets about exactly what was happening on September 1, 1939. Corresponding pictures and newspaper headlines are included. This will be a six-year project. Fortunately, they've cycled through at least once ending this year, so the account is starting over today. I love it!

This day in 1939, Germany is systematically taking over Poland (and making it look like it's all Poland's fault), and London is in a panic over the possibility of being bombed by Germany..

If you're interested, the account is @realtimewwii. It should be very illuminating.