World News Korner

One of Bitcoin enthusiast Mike Caldwell's coins in this photo illustration at his office in Sandy, Utah.


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Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, here attending the General Synod in London Wednesday, Nov. 20, acknowledged the 'revolution' of attitudes toward homosexuality in general society.


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President Obama feeling the love from Californians. A state where Obamacare is working quite well.

Courtesy of Salon:

The confluence of two pieces of news last week will place Republicans at a moral crossroads — either by this weekend, or whenever Healthcare.gov can legitimately be described as a “working” website.

The first came from Jeffrey Zients — the Obama administration point person in charge of fixing Healthcare.gov — who told reporters on Friday that the site will be able to handle 50,000 users at a time and 800,000 users a day by the the end of next week. That’s double the current capacity, and right in time for an expected surge in demand just before the end of the year.

The second came from the pro-reform group Families USA, which examined options available to 15 million people who are currently covered on the individual market (many of whose policies have been canceled and will lapse by the end of the year) under the Affordable Care Act.

According to Families USA, over 70 percent of those currently insured will either qualify for premium tax credits on state-based insurance exchanges, or become newly eligible for Medicaid coverage under the healthcare law.

“Nationally, 71 percent of people in the individual market under age 65 have incomes at or below 400 percent of poverty,” according to Families USA. “Under the Affordable Care Act, these people are income-eligible for financial help to purchase an insurance plan, either through new premium tax credit subsidies or through expanded Medicaid.”

Together that combines all of the ingredients any marketplace needs to be successful:

1) An appealing product.

2) A large population of motivated shoppers.

3) Affordable prices, either by design or by discount.

4). A fast-moving checkout counter.

For the past couple of months, the Healthcare.gov failure allowed Republicans to ignore the moral imperative they face to direct these constituents toward new options. The cash registers aren’t working, they could tell themselves, so what good would we be doing by directing people to the market anyhow. This was always dodgy logic, but it enjoyed a real sheen of plausibility. And that’s why Republicans have spent most of November soliciting Obamacare horror stories, rather than trying to help the narrators.

A working site that can service nearly a million people a day destroys that excuse. Some conservative groups have been craven and reckless enough to actively discourage people from enrolling in Affordable Care Act coverage. Elected Republicans have generally used their influence more subtly, by drawing attention to the hassles and supposed dangers of using Healthcare.gov. Manipulation vs. direct appeal. They’ve also maligned an administrative solution President Obama devised that will allow carriers in some states to reissue canceled policies.

But the real fix for 70 percent (or so) of people whose policies have been canceled is to get new, subsidized coverage through exchanges, or to enroll in Medicaid. Once Healthcare.gov is working at high capacity, they’ll owe people with canceled coverage more than just the play-acting they’ve offered for the past month.

A picture courtesy of Dennis Zaki who says these are everywhere in California.

There has always been a shelf life for the Republican attacks against the ACA, and the website problems certainly extended it, but once those problems are worked out the GOP will have to come up with a different strategy to use to attack Democrats and this President.

Gee I can hardly wait to see what that will be.

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I know that some of you expressed a desire NOT to see this video this morning, but much like seeing Uncle Harold pass out with his pants unzipped in front of the football game after dinner this too is a Thanksgiving tradition.

Besides WHO can really get tired of watching Sarah Palin fail so hilariously at trying to mimic the President turkey pardon.

My favorite part is that according to my friend Linda Kellen Biegel, (Celtic Diva) who was there that day, the cameraman suggested that she might want to move to a different location, but she looked back and then said she was fine right there.

And the rest is Thanksgiving history.

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I don't know how I missed this, but apparently Stephen Colbert predicted that John McCain would pick Sarah Palin as his running mate way back in 2006.

You know I don't usually buy into prognostication but I have to admit THAT is just freaky.

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I felt bad about once again leaving Palin unattractive mug at the top of the final post for today, so I thought it might be more soothing to see somebody who is beautiful both on the inside as well as the outside.

This is from Michelle Obama's interview in Ladies Home Journal.

The President is a lucky man.

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Courtesy of Sarah "I sleep with a picture of Ronald Reagan stuffed into my grannie panties" Palin's ghostwritten Facebook page:

They’re still pulling the wool over some eyes, friends. So let’s call them out yet again. I was recently interviewed on Fox News Sunday. One question I answered was prefaced with the supposed “fact” that “30 million MORE people will be covered by Obamacare.” That statistic is about as credible a promise as “if you like your health care plan you can keep your health care plan.” (In fact that statistic is true, and identifies the millions of Americans who currently are unable to get health insurance through their employers, or on their own due to preexisting conditions or poverty.)

Obamacare is presently hitting people who buy insurance on the individual market because they may not receive health coverage through their employers. It’s hurting millions! But you ain’t seen nuthin' yet. Just wait until the Obamacare employer mandate kicks in next year. As I told Fox News Sunday, despite what the White House and media report, tens of millions more Americans are set to lose their employer provided insurance plans. The ramifications of this WILL fundamentally transform America.

The article linked today at the top of Drudge confirms my point, which is significant because my point was mocked until this article confirmed it. Headline: “Almost 80 million with employer health care plans could have coverage canceled, experts predict.” (It should be pointed out that this is based on an "analysis" conducted by the American Enterprise Institute, a right wing "think tank" that is in the business of coming up with talking points to discredit the ACA.)

Companies that provide health insurance plans that aren’t compliant with new burdensome Obamacare mandates will obviously decide it’s cheaper to dump employees into the government-run Obamacare exchanges and pay the penalty than try to provide an expensive Obamacare-approved plan. (That is NOT obvious, and though it could be a plan in the short run, and remember there is no evidence of any company considering it as of yet, it will soon prove to be a bad business model because health care plans are often part of a package of incentives provided when hiring new employees so it does not seem viable in the long run to not attempt to upgrade the health insurance plans provided by the employer to compete with the ones that individuals can purchase on their own.)

No one in America will be left unscathed by Obamacare. Please trust me on this. (No, I certainly will NOT trust you.) The media can repeat all the bogus White House stats they want about false claims like the individual mandate “only affects 5% of the public,” but they can’t change reality – NUMBERS DON'T LIE – and America is about to get “mugged by reality” very soon, to paraphrase Irving Kristol. (No "numbers don't lie" but semantics do. In this context Palin and the Right Wing keep talking about Americans "losing their health care insurance," when the more accurate wording would be that their health care plans will change, and almost entirely for the better. Yes there will be a segment of the population who will have to pay more, but many will be able to pay less. And what is more important, and the purpose of the law, is that now about 30 million people who could not afford health insurance will finally have access. Though that number has been reduced due to the Republican governors who refused to expand Medicaid in their states.)


Far from providing more Americans with insurance, Obamacare is ironically hurting the very people it was sold to as some kind of health care savior. More people will choose to pay the IRS penalty and go without insurance because they can’t afford the increased rates slamming them (This is a Right Wing talking point that is based on nothing but wishful thinking.), plus they now have fewer options in this one-size-fits-all expensive bureaucratic exchange which forces people to buy coverage for things they don’t want nor need. (Having those medical procedures that the insured does not specifically need covered in the plans does NOT significantly raise the premiums, especially since they are included in everybody's plan now.) We’re talking about one-sixth more of our economy controlled now by big government, remember.

Do not forget that Obamacare contains health care rationing. When I warned America about “death panels,” I was denounced as a liar. But now the reality of “death panels” is openly admitted, even touted by some liberals as their solution. (WTF?) Just yesterday yet another prominent liberal media lapdog joined the chorus in finally admitting that death panel-style rationing is “built into the plan. It's not like a guess or like a judgment. That's going to be part of how costs are controlled." This guy and his ilk need to apologize to all of you, NOW, who knew what I was talking about, repeated my warnings, and were mocked and criticized for it. (Don't hold your breath.)

Okay this took me awhile to figure out who this idiot was talking about, and WHY she would not simply mention his name. But as it turned out she was talking about Mark Halperin, one of the authors of Game Change. (Which explains why she would not allow his name to be mentioned on her Facebook page.) Halperin appeared on some crazy Right Wing news site and stated that there was rationing "built into the plan." This was his response on Twitter to all of the Right Wing hullabaloo:

In Mon intv I did not say "death panels" nor do I believe ACA contains them. Was speaking of political/policy challenge of IPAB cuts. My bad
— Mark Halperin (@MarkHalperin) November 26, 2013

Of course as Talking Points pointed out Haplerin was wrong about this as well:

The law explicitly prohibits the Independent Payment Advisory Board — which aims to control costs — from rationing health care.

Of course it is too late now, because Palin is feeling vindicated and now she, or rather her ghostwriter, is on a roll.


The truth is the “enlightened ones” knew all along that rationing was in the plan. They were angry with me for saying it out loud. The twin pillars of Obamacare have always been redistribution and rationing. Take away one of those pillars and the whole thing crumbles. That’s why Obamacare is doomed. (Doomed! doomed I say!) You were smart enough to know that, while they were arrogant enough to keep up a deceitful ruse until their White House control was guaranteed. They’re busted now, though. And that’s why they’re scrambling to distract you and hope you won’t realize how enormously important upcoming elections are to save our economy.

The redistribution aspect will be Obamacare’s undoing. Not enough young or healthy people will apply for Obamacare because it’s simply unaffordable. (And that is what the Right Wing is counting on and the reason for the memo distributed by House Republicans.) It makes NO economic sense for them to voluntarily sign up. They’ll choose to pay the IRS fine instead. This will bankrupt the whole Ponzi scheme, which is premised on young and healthy people paying for those who are sick or have pre-existing conditions. And when Obamacare fails, the left will push to have us move to full socialized medicine under a so-called “single payer plan.” This is exactly what Barack Obama touted as a candidate, as did many of his bureaucratic appointees, but the media glossed over that all these years.

Friends, the only way to fix Obamacare is to scrap this stuffed turkey and start over with genuine free market (How is are the health care exchanges NOT free market?), patient-centered reforms that allow people to purchase insurance across state lines, enact tort reform, and give individual insurance buyers the same breaks we give employer provided insurance. And we need to elect leaders who will fight for us to get it done. Keep all of this in mind this week as we break for Thanksgiving. Be warned the White House is arming leftist supporters with “talking points” to try to convince family and friends around the Thanksgiving table that Obamacare is the greatest thing since sliced pumpkin bread. (Yep, I've got mine here.) You should politely let them know you’re not swallowing that turkey. (Damn somebody had a lot of Red Bull last night!)

Thank you for doing your own homework, for trusting the truth I've expressed, and for refusing to let the “enlightened ones” keep America in the dark. (Yeah don't listen to smart people, simply believe the "truth" Sarah Palin has expressed. Where have I seen a similar plea?)

- Sarah Palin

Here allow me to sum up what this post is REALLY trying to say.

"Please, please, don't listen to those liberal blogs talking about the fact that I no longer live in Alaska with my family, and that my book tour is failing, and that the Pope just pooped all over the conservative movement in this country. Look, Obamacare! Look Benghazi! Look, anywhere but at what a loser I am."

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