trump’s 1 year anniversary of being president is starting off with the government shutting down that’s the perfect representation of how american politics has been going for the past year
The government got shut down when Obama was president as well.
It’s not new.
Stop blowing it out of proportion.
It’s not a rare occurrence.
When the government shutdown under the Obama administration it was a divided government. Which made more sense because under a divided government it’s harder to compromise.
Here we are, 2018, and the Republicans control ALL branches of the government. They still failed to compromise and negotiate.
This is the first time the government shutdown under a one-party government. Ever.
This is most definitely a rare occurrence. Very rare.
Here we are, once again. Not even a full 12 months later, and yet another Republican shutdown.
This is actually the third government shut-down this year. The third. There was the first in January, an additional one in February, and now we’re rounding out the year with a third shut-down. There was only one during the entire eight years Obama was President. There have only been nine total shut-downs in the entire history of America. Trump is responsible for a third of all government shut-downs and this has all happened in one year and it is only his second year in office. Is that alarming? That should be really fucking alarming.
The February 2018 “shutdown” was really just a spending gap and did not result in government employees being furloughed.
BUT STILL… two full shutdowns in less than two years when the GOP controls the house, senate, and presidency? That’s fucked up.
If this was a company and the accounting department fucked up this badly they’d all be fired. Instead, we’re paying them $174K+ a year each… while the government they manage is shut down.
Politics
A rare political post
How do you control the sale of guns to the mentally ill? I’m mentally ill. I’m stable and have rarely ever in my life shown out in a violent way. I don’t feel like, as a bipolar person, I should have a gun. But this is for my own safety, not for that of others. I can’t imagine ever using a gun to harm another person, but there have been times when I might have attempted to take my own life had a weapon been easily accessible. But if I choose, I can buy a gun. My background check is flawless.
But who decides how mentally ill or functional someone must be to be declined gun ownership? Should someone with anxiety or a history of depression be denied a weapon for self defense just because they went through a rough spell in their twenties? Should all mentally ill people be subject to a “list” as if they are criminals? What about the many, many people who have mental health issues but do not seek treatment?
I am against high capacity rifles in anyone’s hand. I’m sorry, but there’s not a single person I trust with that kind of power. Not one. But regulation is difficult to define and even more difficult to enforce. It’s a bit of a mess.
I think that Americans are not going to stand for heavy gun reform. Because of that, I believe that a push for more accessible mental health care is necessary. It’s unavailable for many, unaffordable for most, and the stigma of being labeled is a really heavy weight to bear.
It’s important for employers to work with people who suffer from mental illness – high levels of stress lead to instability. It’s important for communities, schools to offer programs that teach about acceptance and education on these issues. It’s very, very important that our emergency agencies learn about these things and how to diffuse situations with people who are either mentally unstable or just simply burned out and frustrated with life. It’s important to be there for people in your life who are struggling and offer a strong support system.
The guns aren’t going anywhere. That means that we have got to work on our mental health system and teaching our children coping skills and acceptance of others.
A rare political post
How do you control the sale of guns to the mentally ill? I’m mentally ill. I’m stable and have rarely ever in my life shown out in a violent way. I don’t feel like, as a bipolar person, I should have a gun. But this is for my own safety, not for that of others. I can’t imagine ever using a gun to harm another person, but there have been times when I might have attempted to take my own life had a weapon been easily accessible. But if I choose, I can buy a gun. My background check is flawless.
But who decides how mentally ill or functional someone must be to be declined gun ownership? Should someone with anxiety or a history of depression be denied a weapon for self defense just because they went through a rough spell in their twenties? Should all mentally ill people be subject to a “list” as if they are criminals? What about the many, many people who have mental health issues but do not seek treatment?
I am against high capacity rifles in anyone’s hand. I’m sorry, but there’s not a single person I trust with that kind of power. Not one. But regulation is difficult to define and even more difficult to enforce. It’s a bit of a mess.
I think that Americans are not going to stand for heavy gun reform. Because of that, I believe that a push for more accessible mental health care is necessary. It’s unavailable for many, unaffordable for most, and the stigma of being labeled is a really heavy weight to bear.
It’s important for employers to work with people who suffer from mental illness – high levels of stress lead to instability. It’s important for communities, schools to offer programs that teach about acceptance and education on these issues. It’s very, very important that our emergency agencies learn about these things and how to diffuse situations with people who are either mentally unstable or just simply burned out and frustrated with life. It’s important to be there for people in your life who are struggling and offer a strong support system.
The guns aren’t going anywhere. That means that we have got to work on our mental health system and teaching our children coping skills and acceptance of others.
lets-stop-the-killings-of-robins:
Heavy…. heavy,
Woah
… There’s a very important conversation to be had there.
If this is being brought up shouldn’t we also addressing the age of the politicians in places of power tho?
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
NEVER LET THIS POST DIE
Yes I always get bad looks whenever I say this but its only logical. Anyone over 65 already lived their life. They shouldn’t have a say in anything regarding the future of young people
8 out of 10 cats does countdown always covering the important topics
More importantly- YOUNG PEOPLE NEED TO SHOW UP AT THE POLLS. It doesn’t matter if old people stop voting when young people don’t take the time. It’s not that hard to tip the scales.
This is a really big problem for Georgia. You can’t lose eight hospitals and not have it effect your state overall.
The organization for rural hospitals in Georgia says ‘if Georgia doesn’t figure out how to stop what’s going on, how to keep it’s hospitals opened, that state is going to create a Third World nation health situation in rural parts of the state.’
Now, one way to fix this problem, of course, is to get the poor people who live in rural parts of that state to have health insurance, so that they could go to the doctor before things became an emergency, and when they did go to the doctor, the doctor and the hospital would be paid for the treatment. Radical idea, I know, this whole ‘health insurance’ thing.
The federal government has told Georgia that it will pick up 100% of the cost of getting health insurance to 600,000 people in that state who are currently uninsured. The federal government would pay 100% of the cost of that for three years, and 90% of the cost thereafter, and even though Georgia’s hospitals are dropping like flies, losing the fight to stay opened, as they struggle to treat that state’s poor, rural population which doesn’t have health insurance and can’t pay for the treatment out of pocket, even as that’s happening. They’ve lost eight hospitals, Georgia republicans have said ‘no’.
They’ve said no to covering 600,000 more people in the state, at no cost to the state.
They’ve said no to that deal.
The governor of that state, is named Deal. It’s Nathan Deal, and now Governor Deal of Georgia has proposed a new solution to Georgia’s vexing problem of all it’s hospitals shutting down:
If the rural hospitals are shutting down, because they have to treat people at the emergency room, but none of these uninsured patients can pay for that treatment, if that is the crux of the problem, well rather than turning those uninsured patients into people who can pay, by giving them insurance, Governor Deal has decided ‘You know what, let’s fix the other side of this problem. Let’s fix the Ronald Reagan side of this problem. Let’s repeal the requirement that hospitals have to treat people.’
That’s his big idea, that would do it. Georgia Governor Nathan Deal has now proposed this. He is turning down the option that would 600,000 more people in his state to have health insurance. He is turning that down and instead is proposing that the solution problems is for the federal government to repeal the Reagan Era law that says ‘if you turn up at the hospital while you’re in labor, or while you’re having a heart attack, that hospital has to treat you.’
That’s a federal law, he is asking federal officials to move to repeal it, because that would be good for Georgia.
The governor said that revisiting that specific law is what congress should do “if they really want to get serious about lowering the cost of healthcare in this country.”
When the paper in Noonan, Georgia called the Noonan Times-Herald, when they published Governor Deal’s proposal on that issue this week, they said that what the governor wants to do is get rid of the rule that says that emergency rooms have to treat sick people, the first comment on that article was this:
‘Why yes, that is a way to cut medical spending: let the poor die.”
Rachel Maddow
02/28/2013 on Georgia Governor Nathan Deal’s proposal to repeal the Reagan Era “Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor” act. (via misterdelfuego)
Governor Nathan Deal is a horrendous deal for Georgia. He needs removed from office.
(via thepoliticalfreakshow)
The answer to a problem? Make it so you don’t have to come up with a solution, apparently. Not having to treat the sick and uninsured doesn’t make their health care problems go away, it just makes your state look like a particularly awful place to live.
(via invisiblelad)
Buckle up. This is gonna be long.
Yeah… I’m in Atlanta, and I have the… bonus? to have been in almost every hospital in the metro area due to a condition that can’t get treated by a normal PCP if it pops up. No matter where I am, I have to get *somewhere*, because some of my stuff has “mortality rate” and “within the first hour” all over it.
Nathan Deal is terrible. I sure as hell didn’t vote for the asshole. And it’s horrible to get such poor representation, considering the fact that Atlanta itself is blue enough to make a massive polka dot on political charts. Very seriously, I only know two conservative people, and while they say some very stupid, hurtful stuff, even THIS is making them jump back and say “hold on, wait, no”.
So… if it’s as blue as I claim it is, then why the fuck did this guy get elected, right? Voting laws. Backhanded shit. Attempts to close historical archives and gloss over Georgia’s history (unless you feel like pulling the Confederate flag out, in which case, you keep on! Woo!). Completely ignoring pockets of hate groups like the KKK. And if a white person stands up somewhere and says “Jesus Christ” reverently three times, it apparently makes them a “compassionate conservative” (Brain bleach, where is it?)
I will give the Southern white-ladies-who-lunch type one thing and one thing only. They mobilize like you would not believe, and they WILL use it as a bully pulpit, even paying for extremely right-wing jerks to come talk, and reaping the extra dough. In fact, there’s a megachurch practically in my mother’s backyard that cost millions to build and pretty up, and they’ve had Santorum and somebody on the far right who was highly involved with the Elian Gonzalez media circus. Problem? There are kids going hungry within ten miles of it. Literally. I have had to try to eke out survival there, and I’ve eaten either ramen or nothing at all so I could afford my daughters’ lunches.
This problem has been snowballing for a long time and is just hitting it’s zenith with Deal because of – no joke – county lines. Downtown ATL is fully within Fulton County, which is ridiculously drawn, and includes a shit ton of oblivious wealth and ridiculous poverty, all at the same time.
North Fulton is Stepford. Shiny happy white people who all have blonde bobs, husbands who make a ton so they can stay home, 2.5 kids, a mini-SUV and a labrador. And they love what they get out of South Fulton. The airport, the Fox Theatre, the aquarium, the High Museum, all that. And if they were to need medical care while they’re there, they’d probably get preferred seating at Emory. Isn’t that nice?
The entire thing is, they want all that, but they don’t want to do what they feel is paying for all of it (you don’t, assholes, please see “taxes”). Stepford has wanted to split into their own county for a good long while, moving through meetings in people’s McMansions (so they don’t “look racist” in front of other people.) I have accidentally gotten trapped in one of those. And they are just as bad as you think. Worse, probably, because they know how to doubletalk better than any bunch of people I’ve ever met.
Not far downtown from Emory is Grady Hospital. Grady’s where the best ER nurses, the (good) battleaxes start out, because nobody will freaking pay for it in any way. They learn to be quick on their feet and creative because they don’t have any decent supplies (including decent painkillers, but that’s a slightly different rant). I’ve overheard a nurse in the clean, pretty suburbian hospitals say “I came out of Grady. There’s not much you CAN’T do when you’ve had to figure out how to keep a gunshot victim from bleeding out with one hand and a straw from the cafeteria while you’re waiting for the doc to roll in.”
Georgia has hospitals. Northside Hospital has a city-wide monopoly on obstetrics. You’ll have your babies in a room full of polished wood and bigger than my living room. Both Northside and Emory have prettied-up satellite hospitals in North Fulton. In one hospital around me – the one I was in during Thanksgiving – they gave me a pretty gift bag of stuff that was all branded. I’ve been in one where Food Services would call you in the morning so you could look over a menu (seriously) and give them an order for the day’s meals, and they then brought it in an outfit that made them look like butlers. Zero joke.
Those hospitals are going nowhere.
It’s the Gradys that are dying fast, just like the poor communities they serve, (via marionjravenwood)