catbum

I'm just thinking about how literally insane it is that you (and the collective "we") are essentially forced take this coverage because your employers offer and purportedly cover part of the premium. Sure, you could shop around elsewhere but would end up paying full MSRP on premiums, including in the ACA marketplace where you wouldn't be able to utilize any income-based premium credits.

And so you "accept" this coverage (are forced into it because it's the "best" deal you're gonna get) and then have payroll deductions taken out, 1/5 of your pay that could have bolstered some kind of medical savings account, aaaaand after all this they call it a BENEFIT?!

Goddamn, being any kind of worker in the USA where your employer is large enough to require an offer of insurance makes the vast majority of "consumers of health insurance" the captive audience of the entire fuckin rigged industry. Insurance tied to the workplace is such a scam. Anybody who says there is a "free market" within the the health insurance industry is full of stupid.

But why would I want a truly free market for healthcare anyway? I don't want options like I do for buying furniture, running the gamut between IKEA particle board and hand-turned solid mahogany, cheap to bougie and everything in between.

I don't want to settle on the "silver plan" just because I'm fine with mid-tier, real wood-veneered furniture. I want one option and that is the standard of care for whatever health thing is necessary at whatever point.

Single standard, single payer.

I'm so fucking tired of stupid shit like cancer which nobody asks for just ruining people's lives because even if they beat the absolute shit out of the cancer they STILL PAY FOR THE CANCER one way or another, be it with actual money, begging for donations or forgiveness, or simply ruining your financial future with medical bankruptct. Jfc I hate everything about all of this.

But we should certainly accept anyone who has had a true change of heart in voting for Trump and regrets it or even felt pressured to vote that way in the first place.

I am holding out hope that most of this exchange is in jest (please god how did we end up in a world where this is even seriously considered) but I will add to your great questions of where that EU bribery money could be better spent (which would be on literally anything else) ...

Does the bribe have to be liquid money?

Couldn't it just be giving him overvalued stock or some throwaway business with the same name as a huuuuge international brand but just spelled a little different because he won't notice anyway? Perhaps offer him free reign of the English Chanel and ohhh he'd just gobble it right up because Chanel right, you know, and well he's pretty sure he's seen the word Chanel somewhere before so it's going to be a good deal, very good deal, yes I make great deals very good

why am chaneling trump speak

^still^ ^high^

Pay him under the table, through the grapevine, what have you. I get the feeling he'd have no qualms about such an arrangement. I would rather have bribery bidding wars than (any more) real war.

Edit: Unless bribes have historically started wars, idk I am high and forgot any and all history trivia long ago to the clouuuuds. Also, am I in a fever dream?

Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck.

Man, this is the only explanation for the closure of the lone Italian place in town a few years back.

No Italian restaurants currently exist in a 50 mile radius.

Town's haunted now.

Zpoopa del giOHNO

The worst part is knowing that they're (most likely) just listening to the loudest voter in their household even if other opinions manage to exist in their family.

I only remembered my dad talking about Bush or scoffing at this or that "donkey" thing so I thought it was Bush and the elephants I was supposed to like. I know I would have voted as such in something like this because I didn't know any better at 6-8 years old, although I'm not finding the kids' age ranges in this mock election. Anyway, I still didn't know any better in junior high, I remember voting for Bush again in a 7th grade social studies poll on the 2004 elections. I recall the teacher saying even the results amongst one class were usually a pretty accurate reflection of the actual election results, right down to the goob who voted for Nader.

It took me going to college in the purplest damn section of a pretty red state for me to come to terms with what I actually believed and felt about people and politics. Further education was definitely key, and intertwined with that, it opened me up to people. Just talking to people in an environment where you're all on essentially the same operating level day to day is huge.

My dad kept doing his thing in the small town where everyone knew everyone and somehow managed to sleep with everyone, too. He turned into a Trumper. I did my thing and I admit, it took me a lot of those four years of working on projects and getting pissed about loans together but really just enjoying life with a modestly diverse, pretty tolerant student body (still a lot of white raised-as-protestant types) to undo the damage of a conservatively skewed and Catholic childhood. But I can tell you that by 2014 I was annoyed at myself for not caring about the 2012 election, this first time I could vote. And you can guess I most certainly never even considered supporting Trump or any of the terrible things he represents when he suddenly-to-me showed up.

Would it make any reasonable sense for my dad to go to college at his age? No, probably not. But how do we get people to "simply" live around and be exposed to more people with relatively little prejudice in social status?

Do we just ... Idk where I'm going with this I got high but wait just a tick here did I just reason myself into communism ^fuckity^^shit^

I feel like I just read a Dr. Bronner's soap bottle label.

I uninstalled the McDonald's app last November(?) when they tried to make me accept their bullshit binding arbitration T&Cs.

Saving money, feeling better, not supporting fascism.

What if we work backwards on this?

1. Introduce community boxes at junction points where USPS already delivers, and/or next to a parks so you can say hi to your neighbors and stuff. Ensure any box is within a tolerable walking distance for the average community member served. (Best figure five minutes here folks.)

2. Allow residents with mail being delivered to their physical addresses to opt in to delivery at their associated neighborhood box.

3. Market the boxes as happy medium between visiting a staffed post office at the center of a city and risky doorstep delivery. Locked boxes large enough to accommodate everyday parcels basically nix those pesky pilfering porch pirates.

4. Continue regularly scheduled deliveries to individual addresses because the route will continue to exist at some level of specificity anyway no matter how many or how few community boxes materialize. Carriers essentially keep the same routes but get to drop mad loads of ~~male~~ mail into a bunch of ready and willing local slots near you, driving efficiency up and logistics strategists wild.

5. Promote additional box patronage by offering a slight discount whenever postage/shipping is purchased for a specific physical address utilizing delivery to a community box. Immediate and total coverage of community boxes across America is neither expected nor necessary, but hell, reward those who lighten that load for others.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk!

sincerely, louise dajoy

Edit: got high while writing and it took a turn for the weird

My brother in Christ you have described almost the exact same specs I visualized. The only difference is in the level of resolution of my "scene." And by that, I mean essentially I did a few more render passes in my head to anchor everything you've written within a sort of Impressionistic, highly softened, out-of-focus backdrop. I saw hints of shadowy cabinets, the concept of a darkened kitchen out of sight. The shape and finger placement of my slightly more textured, clothed yet featureless male. The gray-brown feeling of a floor below, a dark white ceiling above, and the faded glow of sunlight through an unseen dining room window grazing one end of that oaken table.

But the basics ... They're the same, and before being asked to recall them. Damn.

My eyes! You've spoiled them!!

^/s^