A word about Handicapped Placards, Scooters and Such…

There are always a few “viral videos” of people on scooters jumping up, or people with handicapped placards running into a store, and the posters thereof always assume that the person with the disability is a fraud. That “no one with a disability could possible do X, therefore they aren’t really disabled”, yadayadaramaramadingdong. Gentle Reader, your humble Bloggespondent is here to offer up a counterexample: his own self.

The Cranky handicap placard is because of coronary insufficiencies, and those are of course largely invisible. However, if over-exertion occurs, so too will the “drop dead in one’s tracks” event occur. That is a pretty serious health issue. (An ICD will be implanted as soon as the insurer pulls its institutional thumb out.) But since there is nothing external to see, the jackasses who post such ignorant, judgemental Internet items would likely view the use of a handicapped spot as “proof” of “fraud”.

And do I get looks from such judging jackalopes? Oh f*** yeah, I get looks. People think they can f*** diagnose persons with physical limitations just by looking at us. Arrogant a**holes…even qualified medical practitioners can’t do an eyeball scan and see such cardiovascular issues. But far too many laypeople think they CAN do such an analysis. F***ing ridiculous. 

When you see someone with such a placard, or riding on a scooter in the store remember how little we can tell about a stranger’s health via a glance. Don’t assume that we are fakes. Assume we are legit, because you are almost certainly NOT our doctors.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

Giving Up = Guaranteed to Lose (Talking to YOU, Democrats)

Mr. Blunt and Cranky has become somewhat accustomed to dealing with weakness, vacillation and incompetence from the Democratic Party, but it is still possible to be shocked. Thus it happened when he read this article. In it, we find out that one of the worst Teabaggers in Washington is guaranteed to win, because Local Dems did not field a candidate. Seriously. Nobody is running against Mr. Sessions:

WASHINGTON (AP) — The primary season just ended and the general election campaign now unfolding looks the same to Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, tea party favorite, foe of immigration legislation and the only Republican senator running in 2014 without a ballot opponent of any stripe.

Sessions’ lack of opposition this fall in a state with a heavy African-American presence stems from a Democratic party weakness so pervasive that it holds none of the statewide offices, only one seat in the nine-member congressional delegation and a minority in both houses of the legislature.

Against this backdrop, we are compelled to inform you that two Dems are in a position to win in Georgia: for Governor and Senator.

All the talk of a Republican takeover of the US Senate after this year’s midterms may have been a bit premature as a new poll in Georgia shows that Democratic candidate Michelle Nunn holds a three-point lead over Republican nominee David Perdue for Georgia’s open Senate seat. The seat is currently held by retiring Republican incumbent Saxby Chambliss. The poll, conducted by Landmark Communications, has Nunn up on Perdue, 46% to 43%. The poll’s margin of error is 2.9%, so Nunn’s lead is razor-thin. However, considering that Georgia is a deep-red state, it has to be extremely disheartening for Republicans to see themselves down in a race where they’d normally be holding a comfortable lead.

The GOP is also taking its lumps in the race for governor. Incumbent Governor Nathan Deal is currently trailing his Democratic opponent, State Senator Jason Carter. Like Nunn, Carter is the beneficiary of a famous last name. While Nunn is the daughter of former US Senator Sam Nunn, Carter’s grandfather is Jimmy Carter, the 39th President of the United States. The poll shows Carter leads Deal by three points, 47% to 44%. With Deal dealing with an ethics investigation, along with general voter dissatisfaction over his policies, trend lines seem to be pointing in a Democratic direction.

The difference in this Tale of Two Red States? Attitude. That is all. Both states are deep red, full of entrenched “Republicans” who rule with iron fists over what should be Democratic majority populations. Geryymandering? Check. Vote suppression? Check. Poverty and oppression? Check. Corruption? Check. These two states are far more similar than they are different.

In Georgia, we have two bad-ass Democrats running for statewide office: Nunn and Carter are lean, mean, politicking machines who are in it to win it. The Sessions race could be going just as well, but Alabama’s Democratic officials are a load of whiny little weenies with loser sweat all over them. They surrendered before the battle even began.

When you give up, you WILL lose.
When you stand up, you CAN win.

Let’s all remember that we are not defined by either of our two parties. We have the power to change things whether  our party hacks have any intestinal fortitude or not.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

Want to vote in South Florida? Better wear Depends.

That’s because if you have to pee during your six-plus-hour wait to cast a ballot, the bathrooms are verboten. Closed. Not available. No matter how long the line, or if you are elderly, or if the weather is crap (oh, you can’t do that either-no potties for you voter types).
From the article:

Instead, he received a written response announcing that the county would close all restrooms at polling places “to ensure that individuals with disabilities are not treated unfairly,” a January email stated. “[T]he Department’s policy is not to permit access to restrooms at polling sites on election days,” Assistant County Attorney Shanika Graves said in a Feb. 14 email.

This latest voter-suppression effort is, of course, designed to keep the elderly, minorities and working poor from casting their ballots: Democratic voters, in other words. The local Board of Election is pretending that this is a decision based on the rights of the disabled, which is a lie more transparent than a hooker’s blouse. No, it’s Miami-Dade county doing what it does best: rigging elections so that “Republicans” win.

If it’s any comfort to all those voters waiting in long lines to vote this year: no matter the state of the diapers they may have to wear in order to exercise their franchise, they will never be as full of s*** as the elected officials who concocted this, well, crappy idea.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

Using ObamaCare to steal from the public

Here is the story of a ripoff being perpetrated on the public by some locations of a restaurant chain called “Gator’s Dockside”. These greedy, larcenous, lying bastards are charging customers a 1% “ACA fee” to cover costs of providing health insurance for employees of the eateries. One teeny tiny little catch: the ACA requirement doesn’t take effect until 2015.

Oh, and the employees aren’t getting the insurance yet. And they won’t until 2015. So the only reason for the fee is theft, plain and simple.

Of course, scam artists abound in America, and there is nothing unusual in thieves committing theft. But this does point up a rather common phenomenon: people using Obama as a scapegoat, smokescreen, or excuse for whatever crimes they wish to commit. And because of the stupidity, venality, xenophobia and racism of so many of us, these con jobs are all too often successful.

Next time you hear Thing One about how ObamaCare is raising our prices, inflating our costs, or other dire predictions of horrible health-care-related problems, remember the lies of these restauranteurs: they blamed Obama for the money they chose to steal from thousands of customers. And beware of the many other crooks who are also lying about the ACA for their own nefarious purposes.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

Barely Legal (at best): how a “Republican” scams the Voter Registration system

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This is a video of a “Republican” who is only registering Republican voters, in a public library in Erie, PA. The usual schtick: he asks,”Are you a Republican?”: you say “yes” or “no”; and only if you say “yes” does he escort you to the table to get you signed up. He’s got a petition in his hand so it looks like he’s doing something legit.

We saw this before, Gentle Reader…the infamous “Romney Honeybunch” video: http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Rdk55dLsFhc
Its sole and nefarious purpose is to disenfanchise voters. Some of these scumbuckets will collect Dem registrations and then trash them, and ones like this clown will try to stop Dems from registering at all.

This is just one example of the kind of crap we are dealing with, peeps. Watch these two video clips, and ask yourself if you want to support a party that can’t win elections without cheating.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

Foreigners are buying American elections, thanks to the Supreme Court.

Remember Citizens United? It was a Supreme Court ruling that allowed billionaires and corporations to buy elections. It also created a secret world in which politicos can be bribed with no way for us to bust them for being corrupt.

Oh, and remember how Obama warned that Citizen’s United could open the door to foreign money buying US elections, and the Chief Justice called the Prexy a liar? Well, golly gee whiz, it turns out that President Obama was right. As the linked article says:

In a first of its kind case, federal prosecutors say a Mexican businessman funneled more than $500,000 into U.S. political races through Super PACs and various shell companies. The alleged financial scheme is the first known instance of a foreign national exploiting the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision to influence U.S. elections.

It turns out that although Citizens United did not change the legality of foreign contributions in the U.S., it enabled the type of illegal schemes now being alleged by federal prosecutors.

“Before Citizens United, in order for a foreign national to try and do this, they’d have to set up a pretty complex system of shell corporations,” said Brett Kappel, a campaign finance expert at the law firm Arent Fox. “And even then, there were dollar limits in place. After Citizens United, there are no limits on independent expenditures.”

Got it? Either the Supreme Court intended for this to happen, or they were so shortsighted and pig-ignorant as to ignore the possibility. No matter which, the result is as predicted: foreign nationals are buying American elections and politicians. And this is only one that we caught. Who knows how many other cases there are, buried in the labyrinthian snakepit of American political “financing”?

Thanks to Presidents Reagan, Bush and Bush for stacking the Supreme Court with Raging Righties in Tightie Whities; because of the hyper-partisan Wingnuts on the Court; the integrity and independence of American government has been gravely damaged. Until Citizens United is repealed, none of us can ever know which of our politicians is actually in the service of a foreign national or even an unfriendly government.

Remember this, Gentle Reader: it is because of “Conservative” “Republicans” that our elections are being bought.And they ARE being bought. This could (and likely will) lead to a foreign takeover of our government if we don’t put a stop to it.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

Lowest of the low: Repubs are stealing Dem campaign donations.

And they are doing it a LOT. In the game of ethical Limbo that is American politics, the GOPee has gone as low as anyone can go.
The scam works like this:

The National Republican Congressional Committee has launched a series of websites that look like they support a Democratic candidate for Congress, but instead direct contributions to the Republican Party instead.
The Tampa Bay Times interviews one donor who thought he was giving to Alex Sink’s (D) congressional campaign. It even used the same blue and green color scheme as the candidate’s official website.

Said the donor: “It looked legitimate and had a smiling face of Sink and all the trappings of a legitimate site.”

However, it was actually a website for the candidate’s “Republican” opponent, set up to con Dems into unknowingly giving money to Repubs. Stealing. Dirty tricks have now become filthy tricks.

And it turns out that this started in December. The Elephant Asses are using the current gridlock at the Federal Election Commission to their advantage, since it will take months or perhaps years before any action might be taken. So they are lying, deceiving, and stealing the while. And it’s not just a few bad apples: the national party is running the scam.

Tell us again, why you would ever support such a party. Because if you do, you support criminals. If you vote Red, you are telling all of us that you are pro-robbery. And frankly, I wouldn’t trust such a scumbucket around my daughters, my wallet, or even my piggy bank.

Repubs: thieves, plain and simple. Since no one will throw these crooks in jail, let’s at least vote them out of office.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

Eric Cantor travels to Davos, using taxpayer funds that COULD have gone to unemployment benefits.

Yes, that hypocritical parasite is lapping up luxury in Switzerland at our expense. This after telling unemployed Americans that there was no money for them.

It is time for America’s hard-working citizens to realize this truth: we send billions upon billions to these lying leeches in our taxes, and they blow our money on luxury trips, private barbers, and shovel millions of dollars to their billionaire buddies. And then they tell us that the country is broke. Bull-f***ing-s***. We aren’t broke at all. There is a lot of money there.

But the money is wasted and stolen by the “trickle-down” crowd in Congress. A perfect example: Cantor’s luxurious trip to Davos will cost more in a day than an unemployed person will get in six months.

Repeat: Eric Cantor’s luxurious trip to Davos will cost more in one single day than a REAL hard-working American’s unemployment benefits would cost for half a year.

Sick of Teapublicans yet? Then for crying out loud, stop f***ing voting for them.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

REAL Republicans should love ObamaCare. Here are four reasons why:

Number A: It is market-based, using the power of competition to lower prices and offer better quality. Republicans love that sort of free-market solution.

Letter 2: It is reducing the Federal Budget Deficit, which means a reduction in the increase of the National Debt. Republicans love deficit and debt reduction.

Thirdly: It takes a whole raft of people who have been “free riders” and makes them pay for  their health care. Republicans love individual responsibility.

Finally: ObamaCare was originally created by the Heritage Foundation, a Republican think tank.

Kind of hard to hard to argue with, innit? These are all Republican ideas, enacted by a Democratic Prexy and a Democratic Congress. Why, any real Republican would be in seventh Heaven over it all.

So, that means anyone who claims to be a Republican but hates ObamaCare must not be a real Republican. Indeed, they would be “Republicans” in name only. That’s pretty much what this writer (along with millions of disaffected moderate Repubs) has been saying since, oh, about 1979 or so. The party that calls itself “Republican” is in fact going berserk, trying to destroy a health care policy that it should be embracing.

Your Cranky correspondent, as an Independent, hasn’t got a dog (or Jackass, or elephant) in either the intermural or intramural partisan fighting that sucks up so  much valuable time and so many limited resources. But he DOES have an interest in a sane, open, transparent health care system in this country that we all share. And these fake “Republicans” are getting in the way of that worthy goal.

To all the real Republicans who are still out there: do us all a favor and kick these Reaganista charlatans out of your party, and take it back. Please. Then we can all return to a bunch of rational grownups running the show, having meaningful debates, reaching compromises, and just generally governing according to the rule of law and basic principles.

Instead of just mindlessly, reflexively hating anything and everything that comes from a Black President, even if the original idea was from Repubs in the first place. Which is exactly what “Republicans” are doing with ObamaCare.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

We Told You So (How Obamacare Is Cleaning Up Health Care Financing)

In April of 2012, Mr. Blunt and Cranky wrote this post:https://bluntandcranky.wordpress.com/2012/04/06/you-are-already-paying-for-the-uninsured-but-the-costs-are-hidden/, in which he pointed out that hospitals inflate the prices charged to the uninsured in order to cook their books. The uninsured get charged far more than the actual cost + profit; they get sued and their credit is destroyed when they can’t pay the bill; and the hospital writes off the artificially high loss as charity care, or as an unpaid debt. This shell game allows providers to scam patients, governments, insurers, and taxpayers. And for years, it’s been in the shadows.

Recently the New York Timed came out with a story that said pretty much the same thing as this blog said last year (nice of them to finally catch up). Short version: ObamaCare requires these medical con artists to clean up their acts and stop fleecing the rest of us, and shines a bright light into the shadows where the ripoffs have hitherto occurred. Specifically, ObamaCare requires health care providers to charge the uninsured the same as they charge the insured. That, people, is a big deal, because it makes their cost-shifting scams illegal.

You can learn a lot about what something is for by seeing who is against it: almost everybody is in favor of this part of the ACA; almost everyone, that is, except for health care providers. They hate this law, because they can’t rip us off as easily as they used to. So they have bought Congresscritters and Senators aplenty, and spent money on lying TV and radio ads to make us believe that ObamaCare is badbadbadohyessoverybadindeed. They didn’t do that because Obamacare is bad for US, they did it because Obamacare is bad for THEM, and their borderline-criminal activities.

And what does it say about the state of our news media that one cantankerous old blogger scooped the NYT by 13 months? After all, it’s not like the information wasn’t out there, or that this writer is some kind of frickin’ genius. No, the media sat on this story for years before they put it out. That is almost as contemptible as the actions of the health care industry.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky