Tell Us Another Sad Story New York Times . . . . .

Jeebus . . .

I see the New York Times has published yet another article about very privileged people whining about the ACA.
In this case, said article features a couple making $100,000 a year who, under the ACA, will be paying $1,000 a month for health care covering themselves and their two sons. Take it away, Dean Baker:

Here they are with a front page story telling us about the tragic situation of the Chapmans, a New Hampshire couple making $100,000 a year who will have to spend $1,000 a month for insurance with Obamacare. This would come to 12 percent of their income. The piece tells readers:

“Experts consider health insurance unaffordable once it exceeds 10 percent of annual income.”

That’s interesting. If we go to the Kaiser Family Foundation website we find that the average employee contribution for an employer provided family plan is $4,240. The average employer contribution is $11,240. That gives us a total of $15,470. Most economists would say that we should treat the employers payment as a cost to the worker since in general employers are no more happy to pay money to health insurance companies than to their workers. If they didn’t pay this money as health insurance then they would be paying it to their workers in wages.

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2013_12/the_new_york_times_and_the_aca048305.php


The Gadfly said it quite some time ago and he will restate it --- The Gadfly would be happy to have a calm, rational and very open discussion on the issue of health care in America if any conservative anywhere can coherently and sensibly explain to The Gadfly why it is that allowing a massively inefficient and wasteful, self-interested, profit-driven entity like the healthcare insurance industry to be the arbitrating middle man between the state of our individual health and our doctors, is the one and only solution to the nation's health care dilemma.  That offer remains open and yet to be responded to.

Oh - and btw - this family in the NYT story that is bitching and moaning about having to spend $1,000 a month for health care coverage on their family of four --- on their paltry income of $100,000+ a year --- imagine another family of four facing that very same expenditure on only half of that income, or a third of it, or even less . . . .

“Piglet noticed that even though he had a Very Small Heart, it could hold a rather large amount of Gratitude.”

― A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

When conservatives acknowledge that there is something terribly wrong with the way this country is presently providing a basic life necessity such as health care to ALL of it's citizenry, that will be the day that The Gadfly will gladly offer such a conservative a seat at his kitchen table so that we might sit down and have an adult conversation on the matter.

Until then, "news" stories about people making more than $100k a year crying about having to spend 12% of their income to provide quality health care for their family just doesn't elicit much sympathy from The Gadfly.



----TFG

♫ "What a bright time it's the right time ♫ To rock the night away ♫ Jingle bell time is a swell time ♫ To go gliding in a 2-wheel sleigh ♫ . . . "

Pretty neat . . . kudos for the creativity:





The Gadfly likes it more than anything, not because of the brand name because he him self is a two-wheel aficionado, albeit not of the HD strain.

That being said, here is how The Gadfly combines his love of Christmas and motorcycle hooliganism -- and yes, this is the real deal dear readers, and that is Gadfly Kringle's very own two-wheeled sleigh:

----TFG

Kicking Out The Holiday Jams . . . . .

The Christmas festivities for The Gadfly really begins to swing in to full gear when this song hits the airwaves:



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/21/darlene-love-christmas-baby-letterman_n_4485773.html?utm_hp_ref=media&ir=Media


Thank you David Letterman for giving us 27 years of the magnificent Darlene Love and this fantabulous, kick-ass rocking Christmas tune.



----TFG

Bless Us, Every One . . . . .

Of all of the filmed versions of Dickens' 'A Christmas Carol', by far The Gadfly's favorite is the 1951 version starring Alistair Sim as the insufferably spiteful and uncompassionate Ebeneezer Scrooge.  It was this version that The Gadfly recalls watching so many times as a wee lad around the Christmas holiday, and while there are many other well-made remakes of the venerable old classic, it is this version that brings back The Gadfly's memories and which is an annual catalyst that triggers the spirit of empathy and humanity which The Gadfly feels for those less fortunate than his self.

This scene from the movie really is the heart of the tale:





The Gadfly is convinced that Charles Dickens must have come in to possession of a magic crystal ball back in 1843 when he wrote 'A Christmas Carol.'  A crystal ball that allowed him see in to the future and gain insight in to the economic inequalities of present day society.  As such, he must have foreseen the results of modern money worship hallmarked by people like the 6 individual members of the Walton (Walmart) family who own more of the nation's wealth than the bottom 40% (128 million) of Americans, yet their employees are paid so miserly that nearly half of them are on some form of tax-payer public assistance.

He must have foreseen the rise of the Jack Kingstons of the present age - waxing nostalgic about child labor and forcing the innocent children of the economically disadvantaged to swing a mop and a broom for their daily bread.

He must have foreseen the relentless attacks by the moneyed elites on workers rights and livable wages.

He must have foreseen the steady erosion of middle class economic security and stability in the form of profitable corporations off-shoring good paying jobs in exchange for third world cheap labor, the erosion of benefits and pensions and retirement plans, and the buying of corrupt politicians to do their legislative bidding - all with the aim of weakening the will of the workers ever so steadily.

Yes -- Dickens must have foreseen all of it -- which in turn inspired his mind to put pen to paper and create the execrable character that was the unenlightened Ebeneezer Scrooge.  Yet Dickens' story was also a story of hope - hope that mankind's selfishness and vindictiveness could be softened by embracing the ideals of love, charity and compassion and by accepting the reality that we are all in this human struggle together.

The Gadfly is not naive.  He accepts the reality that the worst instincts of the worst citizens in our society, and in the world at large, are not going to change just by watching an old Christmas movie.  But he still has some remnants of hope that enough decent, caring and visionary people will arrive at the realization that their force in numbers is more than enough to effectively mitigate the human damage being perpetrated by the greed and avarice of all the Scrooges of the world.



----TFG

Captain Obvious Strikes Again! . . . . .

Oh c'mon -- who in the hell would be surprised by this?:

December 15, 2013|By Rene Stutzman, Orlando Sentinel

It's not armed robbers or warring gangs who send the greatest percentage of gunshot survivors to Florida emergency rooms.

It's people who shoot someone, or themselves, accidentally.

Four out of every 10 people who are rushed to a Florida hospital or emergency room with a nonfatal wound were shot by accident, according to hospital data collected by the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration and published by the Florida Department of Health.

http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2013-12-15/news/os-gun-accidents-20131215_1_mario-whitehead-florida-agency-hospital


You cannot tell The Gadfly that nobody bothered to contemplate the real-world consequences of allowing gun worship and gun fetishism to dominate our culture at the expense of public health and safety.  Because the fact of the matter is - plenty of people did - and their voices were summarily ignored -- and as a result -- Voila!



----TFG

Wtf?? No - Really --- Wtf??? . . .

The Gadfly is curious as to how you, dear reader, would react if The Gadfly were to tell you that in the year of our Noodly Appendage 2012, that your federal government gave out $240 billion in housing aid.  And of that $240 billion in taxpayer subsidies, over half of it went to households who had a reported annual income of more than $100,000 (that's one hundred thousand dollars per year), and $34 billion of that amount went to households with a reported annual income of more than $200,000 (that's two hundred thousand dollars per year).

If your reaction was something along the lines of this . . .





. . . The Gadfly welcomes you to the proverbial fucking club.

The Center for Budget Policy Priorities released a number of charts today that shows how much the federal government favors high-income households over low-income ones in housing benefits.

This largely results from the fact that homeowners receive significantly more aid than renters and high-income Americans are much more likely to be homeowners.

In 2012, the federal government gave out $240 billion in housing aid. Income data is not available for all of it, but of what is available, more than half went to those with incomes greater than $100,000 ($81.6 billion). Only $40 billion went to those with incomes less than $50,000.

Overall, high income households receive four times as much in housing aid as low-income ones.

The main reason for this is the majority of federal housing aid flows to homeowners, not renters. The mortgage interest deduction is the most well-known program that subsidizes homeownership. That deduction alone is larger than all federal rental aid combined.

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-government-is-quietly-giving-way-more-housing-aid-to-rich-people-than-poor-people-2013-12


Now, just so that it is clearly understood, The Gadfly was so stunned by this article that before he allowed his hackles to be raised and his fingertips to dance manically across his keyboard in conveying utter contempt for such a travesty, The Gadfly did go to Business Insider's source, the CBPP (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities) to confirm the data.

Is The Gadfly somehow off his rocker when he states with all due sincerity, that up until now, whenever he heard the words "federal housing aid" used in the context of discussions surrounding the national budget, that it was just natural to assume that "aid" of that type was flowing exclusively to those at the bottom of the income ladder and those most desperately in need?  The Gadfly is being serious here dear readers.  Please help him reconcile in his dirty old hippie mind the circumstances of how it is that someone with an annual income of over $200,000 is not only in need of government assistance to keep a roof over their heads, but is actually granted it?

Perhaps The Gadfly's ire would be much more tempered if it weren't for the fact that a great many of these $200K a year earners are the same fucking people who love to point fingers and divide our society in to the simplistic economic categories of "makers" and "takers."  The takers in their view comprise basically anyone accepting federal tax dollars under the umbrella of the social welfare contract, up to and including food stamps, housing aid, unemployment insurance, child care subsidies, healthcare, etc....

So obviously this study begs the question -- just who are the real "takers" in our society?  The Gadfly thinks it would be a dandy idea to have a robust national debate on this issue --- let us get this class warfare discussion out in to the open sunlight and let's get EVERYTHING on the table, such as studies like this one from the CBPP.  Let us have a transparent, honest and adult conversation on this very important topic.

If you dear reader are of the belief that The Gadfly is pulling your leg with that exhortation of holding a comprehensive, open and serious civic dialogue on this subject, you wouldn't be too wrong.  While The Gadfly would welcome such a legitimate and refreshing bout of reality-based deliberations on this "makers and takers" quarrel, The Gadfly is not so much the fool to believe that the elites in this country would ever, ever allow such a seminal occasion to occur. Because to do so would be akin to turning on a bright light in the darkened kitchen of an abandoned slum dwelling and seeing the cockroaches dart off in to all of the murky corners.  And if you haven't figured it out yet, the cockroaches are the elites themselves and the murky corners are where they perform their unceasing business of constantly plotting how to take more and more out of the national treasury for themselves and leaving fewer and fewer crumbs for the rest of society.

As stated in many a previous post dear readers, The Gadfly can only bring this information to your undivided attention.  What you as a citizen decide to do, or not to do with it is entirely up to you -- just know that the consequences of inaction bode far worse for the future outcome of your children and grandchildren's quality of life than deciding to stand up and have your voice be heard.

And that is about all that The Gadfly has to say about this disheartening matter.



----TFG

Everything is Just Ducky . . . . .

There will be light posting by The Gadlfy over the coming week due to seasonal activities that The Gadfly is duty bound to participate in, but fret not, The Gadfly is truly looking forward to the coming new year and ratcheting up his muckraking mission to afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted.

>
>-------------------------------------->
>

Meanwhile, as 1.3 million Americans are on the cusp of having their long term federal unemployment insurance benefits dry up in the blink of an eye, the people who claim the mantle of being America's "mainstream" media are ignoring that real-life, human impacting story because they are much too busy tut-tutting and falling like dominoes on to their fainting couches about some backwater redneck patriarch who has parlayed his family redneck business into a tidy sum of wealth and in the process become a "reality" television star, publicly saying some fairly nasty and un-Christian things about gays and African Americans.

First off, The Gadfly does not give a flying monkey's sphincter about Duck Dodgers of Dynastyville or whatever the fuck "reality" show the old, dry-rot brained bigot Phil Robertson is a "star" of.  Just .. does .. not .. care.  Mr. Clampett, er...Robertson, is fully entitled to his public opinions, as hateful and ignorant as they are, and if it is his desire to present his self to the world as a boorish, vindictive asshole, then that is entirely his constitutionally guaranteed prerogative.

But mark The Gadfly's words, watch as in the coming days, the right wingers in this country attempt to portray this knuckle-dragging hick as the poor, defenseless victim in this whole sordid scenario.  Watch as they try to elevate him to hero status on the level of some of the icons of the civil rights movement or the international human rights movement.  Watch how they cry rivers of crocodile tears about how the poor cracker's free speech rights have been infringed upon and about how intolerant the mean old liberals are being to him.  Watch how they masterfully play the lapdog media like a fiddle and elicit haughty pundit opinion pieces chastising liberals for their intolerance and contributing to the coarsening of public discourse in the country.  (pssst!:  all of the aforementioned is already occurring - click here and here and here).

Well -- you go ahead and watch it all dear readers, because The Gadfly is not planning to do so. The Gadfly has about as much interest in watching that maudlin Kabuki theater play it's pathetic self out as he has in watching an army of pissed-off fire ants swarm his genital region.

As Christmas and the New Year approach, The Gadfly would much prefer to conserve his combative energies and his biting wit for the really important battles to come against conservative governing idiocy, and make no mistake about it, those are going to be some fierce battles.

In closing of this post, instead of wasting your life force by getting embroiled in this Duck Soup buffoonery, better spent would be your time by contacting your Congress critter's or Senator's office and expressing your displeasure at seeing more than a million of your fellow working Americans having their last resort of income be sacrificed on the gilded alter of supply-side economic austerity -- not to mention the inherent cruelty and immorality of it.



----TFG

Sound The All Clear . . . . . .

After that Jack Kingston, let the toddlers work to stave off hunger story, The Gadfly really needed something like this to assuage his impassioned ire and refocus his energies back to the core mission of this shitty little blog . . .

Thank you The Onion . . . .






----TFG

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr . . . .

Sigh . . . .

DECEMBER 18, 2013, 4:34 PM EST

Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA), a primary candidate in the 2014 Georgia Senate race, on Saturday suggested poor students sweep floors in order to get a free lunch, according to the Huffington Post.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/gop-rep-suggests-kids-clean-schools-in-exchange-for-lunch


Yes genius -- let's compound our societal class divisions even more by forcing mops and brooms in to the hands of the kids whose parents are in a bad economic way, while the kids whose parents are fortunate enough to be able to pay for their children's lunches stand on the sidelines watching their less fortunate classmates "work" for the right to satiate their hunger.

The Gadfly is not a man prone to human on human violence, but he swears -- there are times when these asshole conservatives just outright push his patience to the ultimate limit and stir in him the innate desire to spinning backfist one of them in their smug, smirking face when they spout idiotic and gutless shit like this.

What kills The Gadfly is that this was a discussion about making spending cuts to the agricultural spending bill currently being worked on in Congress - and the first thing that comes to this smarmy little Republican prick's mind when it comes to the subject of taxpayer savings is making the poorest kids perform manual labor for their meals.  Because God knows we couldn't possibly consider other alternatives such as maybe raising the upper tier tax rate a half, or even a quarter of a percentage point on the wealthiest Americans, or adding a very modest luxury tax on yachts and jets and other similarly elitist commodities, or even perhaps canceling a few of those billion dollar military contracts that are nothing more than pork troughs for some of these politician's local districts and as such add nothing of value to the national security of the country.

But noooooooo . . . . Let's make the poverty-stricken kids mop and sweep the floors for a few crumbs of shitty school cafeteria food.  That'll teach 'em that nothing in life is free.

Gutless, mindless, heartless fucking assholes -- The Gadfly is so sick of these fuckers -- he swears it.



----TFG

Derp, Duh, Pfffffffft! . . . . . .

While The Gadfly appreciates the fact that prominent American economists are following Pope Francis' lead and agreeing on the premise that a widening wealth gap is bad for the country, The Gadfly certainly did not need a fucking survey study to be commissioned to tell him so:

December 17
BY CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABERAP Economics Writer

WASHINGTON — The growing gap between the richest Americans and everyone else isn't bad just for individuals.

It's hurting the U.S. economy.

So says a majority of more than three dozen economists surveyed last week by The Associated Press. Their concerns tap into a debate that's intensified as middle-class pay has stagnated while wealthier households have thrived.

A key source of the economists' concern: Higher pay and outsize stock market gains are flowing mainly to affluent Americans. Yet these households spend less of their money than do low - and middle-income consumers who make up most of the population but whose pay is barely rising.

"What you want is a broader spending base," says Scott Brown, chief economist at Raymond James, a financial advisory firm. "You want more people spending money."

Spending by wealthier Americans, given the weight of their dollars, does help drive the economy. But analysts say the economy would be better able to sustain its growth if the riches were more evenly dispersed.

http://www.kansascity.com/2013/12/17/4698466/ap-survey-us-income-gap-is-holding.html


"You want more people spending money."

In the event some of you dear readers did not quite process the meaning of that quote, let's run it by one more time . . .

"You want more people spending money."


Well The Gadfly will be a suck-egg mule!  Imagine fucking that!! It's so obviously obvious!!!

You mean to tell The Gadfly that if more Americans had decent jobs that paid them decent wages then that means they would spend those wages buying more useless shit from companies, thus increasing those companies bottom line profits and increasing those company's investor's return on investment, therefore boosting the overall health of the economy and ultimately improving life for a great many more U.S. citizens?

Will wonders never cease?

The Gadfly only has one question then . . . who is going to pound this very profound message in to the seemingly impenetrable block heads of the right wingers and Teabagger bufoons?

What The Gadfly is getting at is that it's all nice and wonderful that U.S. economists are basically agreeing with progressive economic policies, but fat lot of good it does when you still have the minor complication of that "cult" who is still controlling one half of Congress that believes that the Warren Buffets and the Bill Gates' of the world deserve even more tax and economic breaks while Dick & Jane MiddleAmerica just need to suck it up and sacrifice more than what they have been already.

Until that puzzling puzzle is solved, they might just as well publish a survey which confirms that a majority of neurologists agree that having a bowling ball dropped on to your head from the height of a two-story building could have a lasting, negative impact on one's cognitive thinking abilities.



----TFG