Once you turn 50, your life changes. AARP will start stoning you with mailers and ads to join them. AARP, for those truly in the dark, is an organization that supposedly unites aging Americans into a power bloc able to flex muscle as needed in the political (and sometimes business) arena. It is an acronym that is short for American Association of Retired People. They solicit members that cross the magic age of 50 regardless if you are retired or not, and it is pretty clear that most are still working at age 50. They don't care; when they swing their political muscle in government they claim to represent many millions of Americans. They need numbers and other than the age restriction don't seem to care how they get them, as long as the number is large enough for political clout.
Many join for the benefits they offer; discounts on travel, lodging, car rentals and such. They sponsor their own brand of supplemental health insurance aimed mostly at those already on Medicare. When I turned 50, I thought about it and joined. I was stupid enough to think I was getting a better deal by selecting the 5-year member plan that when broken into year-by-year cost, was cheaper.
It was a decision that I came to regret when President #44 came into office.
When Obamacare was presented, AARP initially tried to take a middle-of-the-road position on it, but they couldn't quite pull it off. They bit hook, line and sinker and supported it. I and others were appalled. Older people tend to be more conservative and there is nothing conservative about Obamacare. We were lied to (keep your insurance, keep your doctor, etc), we were told it was not a tax (The Supreme Court tuned that one up real fast) and for the first time in American history, you paid a fine to the government if you did not buy insurance.The biggest lie was, of course that your cost would go down. In fact, the cost went up - significantly. The estimates easily found with a google search indicate costs went up more than 12% almost immediately, and 2017-2018 saw silver-tier plans go up 32% .... and gold-tier plans went up over 19%.
So the question begs: Why would any organization that purports to represent seniors support this craziness?
When my membership lapsed, like many others, I didn't renew. Oh, they let me know they wanted me and my money repeatedly. My trash can saw heavy use during this solicitation stage.
What surprised me the most was how AARP hid its actions from the people they represent. Read this:
During the first Presidential debate, President Obama touted the support of AARP for ObamaCare several times. While AARP immediately responded by saying, "AARP is a nonpartisan organization and we do not endorse political candidates nor coordinate with any candidate or political party", recently released emails between the White House and AARP operatives seem to indicate that AARP threw their tremendous lobbying power behind the legislation despite the fact they were getting calls overwhelmingly against it.
In fact, on September 20, 2012, Kimberley A. Strassel of the Wall Street Journal wrote:
"Thanks to just-released emails from the House Energy and Commerce Committee, we now know that AARP worked through 2009-2010 as an extension of a Democratic White House, toiling daily to pass a health bill that slashes $716 billion from Medicare, strips seniors of choice, and sets the stage for rationing. We know that despite AARP's awareness that its seniors overwhelmingly opposed the bill, the 'nonpartisan organization' chose to serve the president's agenda.
The 71 pages of emails show an AARP management taking orders from the White House, scripting the president's talking points, working to keep its board 'in line' and pledging a fealty to 'the cause.' Seniors deserve to know all this, as AARP seeks to present itself as neutral in this presidential election."
Ye shall know the truth, and it shall set ye free. And it did. AARP hijacked my membership (and the memberships) of millions to do exactly what their members did not want them to do.
Sayonara, AARP.
Enter the relatively-new kid on the black: AMAC. AMAC stands for Association of Mature American Citizens and is the conservative answer to AARP.
Offering programs similar to AARP, business discounts and such, AMAC is for me the better choice. Their numbers are growing and with them, their political clout in DC.
Like AARP, they stay in touch with their members. Unlike AARP, they actually listen to the views and feelings of their members. And the real good news is, they offer a free 1-year membership. I took advantage of it and I hope you will consider joining them too. When my 1-year is up (in a few months), I fully intend to keep my membership up and pay dues. I'm not sure how long they are going to offer this deal, so don't think about it too long.
I wonder if AARP ever fully understood what a huge mistake they made when they threw their weight behind Obamacare. It cost them dearly.
Tuesday, July 30, 2019
Wednesday, July 17, 2019
The New Revised American Un-PC Dictionary
In this divided country new political words and terms are emerging almost daily and many of them are confusing to the uninformed reader. As a descendant of the famous Webster family (yes, really) I hereby seize this unique lineage qualification and appoint myself chief cook and bottlewasher of the new Un-PC dictionary until further notice. Complaints about this appointment can be made on the 3rd Tuesday of every month, except in months with a vowel in their name.
Affirmative Action: The placement of lesser-qualified people over higher-qualified people into a job or position based simply on having non-white skin. In specialized fields such as medicine or air traffic control, this results in a higher mortality rate.
Anchor Baby: A legal citizen of the United States with parents that aren't.
Antifa: A group of violent fascists dedicated to anti-fascism and the cessation of violence by using violence. While violently protesting, they cover their faces with hoodies and do-rags because they are proud of themselves. Like cockroaches, they slither away into the cracks and crevasses until their next planned riot.
Bisexual: A person that engages in sexual intercourse once every 6 months, or 2 years if they misunderstood what "bi" means.
Boomerang Generation: Young to middle-aged adults who have had every resource given to them while growing up and yet somehow end up moving back into their parents house, often in the basement. See also Failed Fledglings and Parasite Singles.
Colin Cancer: A disease resulting from wearing or purchasing anything with the Nike logo on it.
Doxx: Collect and/or display private information about somebody on social media, or what Antifa likes to do to others but does not want done to themselves.
Food Stamps: Formerly, expensive small pieces of paper meant to purchase food that often ended up being exchanged at a discounted rate for beer or cigarettes. Now, a plastic card loaded with money from taxpayers that allows non-working people to have their cake and eat it too.
Free Health Care for Illegals: The new idea Socialist-Liberal Democrats want after forcing citizens to pay for health insurance under penalty of a fine if they don't. Americans will not only continue to pay for health insurance for themselves but also pay increased insurance premiums as a result of those illegals who don't have to pay.
Gaslighting: Psychological manipulation that encourages a person to ignite their own flatulence.
Helicopter Parents: Parents (usually liberal) who hover over their children so much that they cut their heads off with the rotors of the helicopter without intending to do so ... rendering their children ineffective for the rest of their lives.
Illegal Alien: An extraterrestrial being with an unregistered ray-gun.
Metrosexual: A musical time-keeping device used to regulate the rhythm of sexual intercourse.
Millenial: A young adult in the 21st century who thinks the world owes them a million dollars.
Late-Term Abortion: The entire NY State Legislature and Governor ... and many blues states also.
Liberal: A copious quantity. Ex: Please butter my popcorn liberally. Or, a person who wants you to pay for the butter on their popcorn and ... their popcorn too. Somehow, they never manage to pay for yours. See also Socialism.
Libtard: A colloquialism derived from Liberal and Retard; Liberal, meaning free with other peoples money and Retard, meaning slow, as in mental capacity.
Obama Happy-Meal: The free meal the person in line ahead of you gets when they order whatever they want and then tell the counter person to hand you the bill.
Obama-Phone: An electronic device that involuntarily takes money out of taxpayers pockets.
Racist: See white supremacist below.
Reverse Racism: Hating people of any color while backing a car up.
Sanctuary City: A high-tax and high-crime area with prosperous camping-equipment merchants and fecal-laden sidewalks. See also Tent Cities.
Snowflake: A delicate symmetrical 6-sided ice crystal that falls from the sky and melts unpredictably, not unlike some easily-offended liberals.
Socialism: A system whereby able-bodied people who refuse to work legally steal from those who do. Also know as Communism lite.
TDS: Trump Deranged Syndrome. See also https://donbackman.blogspot.com/2019/03/a-new-mental-disease-in-america.html
TMI: Too much information, a term that describes the false notion that others need to be informed about your personal lives, including your sexual preferences and what you had for dinner last night.
Tribal: A derogatory label usually used on social media to describe a conservative who made better arguments in an on-line debate.
Undocumented Worker: A person ignoring the immigration laws of the United States who promises to follow the laws of the United States if we just ignore the law.
Welfare: A system of economic redistribution that is neither well or fair for those who pay for it but receive nothing in return.
White Privilege: A term describing an imaginary state of racial superiority that OJ Simpson, Jussie Smollett, Michael Jackson, Al Sharpton, Jessie Jackson, Kim Foxx, Ilhan, Rashida, Alexandra and other famous POC use (or have used) but don't quite understand the irony of.
White Supremacist: Every white person that was ever born.
White Supremacy: A term used by lazy or noncompetitive people who failed in life to shift blame from themselves to others that actually worked for what they have.
Affirmative Action: The placement of lesser-qualified people over higher-qualified people into a job or position based simply on having non-white skin. In specialized fields such as medicine or air traffic control, this results in a higher mortality rate.
Anchor Baby: A legal citizen of the United States with parents that aren't.
Antifa: A group of violent fascists dedicated to anti-fascism and the cessation of violence by using violence. While violently protesting, they cover their faces with hoodies and do-rags because they are proud of themselves. Like cockroaches, they slither away into the cracks and crevasses until their next planned riot.
Bisexual: A person that engages in sexual intercourse once every 6 months, or 2 years if they misunderstood what "bi" means.
Boomerang Generation: Young to middle-aged adults who have had every resource given to them while growing up and yet somehow end up moving back into their parents house, often in the basement. See also Failed Fledglings and Parasite Singles.
Colin Cancer: A disease resulting from wearing or purchasing anything with the Nike logo on it.
Doxx: Collect and/or display private information about somebody on social media, or what Antifa likes to do to others but does not want done to themselves.
Food Stamps: Formerly, expensive small pieces of paper meant to purchase food that often ended up being exchanged at a discounted rate for beer or cigarettes. Now, a plastic card loaded with money from taxpayers that allows non-working people to have their cake and eat it too.
Free Health Care for Illegals: The new idea Socialist-Liberal Democrats want after forcing citizens to pay for health insurance under penalty of a fine if they don't. Americans will not only continue to pay for health insurance for themselves but also pay increased insurance premiums as a result of those illegals who don't have to pay.
Gaslighting: Psychological manipulation that encourages a person to ignite their own flatulence.
Helicopter Parents: Parents (usually liberal) who hover over their children so much that they cut their heads off with the rotors of the helicopter without intending to do so ... rendering their children ineffective for the rest of their lives.
Illegal Alien: An extraterrestrial being with an unregistered ray-gun.
Metrosexual: A musical time-keeping device used to regulate the rhythm of sexual intercourse.
Millenial: A young adult in the 21st century who thinks the world owes them a million dollars.
Late-Term Abortion: The entire NY State Legislature and Governor ... and many blues states also.
Liberal: A copious quantity. Ex: Please butter my popcorn liberally. Or, a person who wants you to pay for the butter on their popcorn and ... their popcorn too. Somehow, they never manage to pay for yours. See also Socialism.
Libtard: A colloquialism derived from Liberal and Retard; Liberal, meaning free with other peoples money and Retard, meaning slow, as in mental capacity.
Obama Happy-Meal: The free meal the person in line ahead of you gets when they order whatever they want and then tell the counter person to hand you the bill.
Obama-Phone: An electronic device that involuntarily takes money out of taxpayers pockets.
Racist: See white supremacist below.
Reverse Racism: Hating people of any color while backing a car up.
Sanctuary City: A high-tax and high-crime area with prosperous camping-equipment merchants and fecal-laden sidewalks. See also Tent Cities.
Snowflake: A delicate symmetrical 6-sided ice crystal that falls from the sky and melts unpredictably, not unlike some easily-offended liberals.
Socialism: A system whereby able-bodied people who refuse to work legally steal from those who do. Also know as Communism lite.
TDS: Trump Deranged Syndrome. See also https://donbackman.blogspot.com/2019/03/a-new-mental-disease-in-america.html
TMI: Too much information, a term that describes the false notion that others need to be informed about your personal lives, including your sexual preferences and what you had for dinner last night.
Tribal: A derogatory label usually used on social media to describe a conservative who made better arguments in an on-line debate.
Undocumented Worker: A person ignoring the immigration laws of the United States who promises to follow the laws of the United States if we just ignore the law.
Welfare: A system of economic redistribution that is neither well or fair for those who pay for it but receive nothing in return.
White Privilege: A term describing an imaginary state of racial superiority that OJ Simpson, Jussie Smollett, Michael Jackson, Al Sharpton, Jessie Jackson, Kim Foxx, Ilhan, Rashida, Alexandra and other famous POC use (or have used) but don't quite understand the irony of.
White Supremacist: Every white person that was ever born.
White Supremacy: A term used by lazy or noncompetitive people who failed in life to shift blame from themselves to others that actually worked for what they have.
Monday, July 1, 2019
Elections and Money
I'm not thinking this is what our Founding Fathers had in mind. The current condition of our governments (Federal and State) fool us into thinking we, the people actually cast ballots for candidates and somehow the idea of a representative government has lasted for well over 200 years.
In reality, money has taken over the electoral process and yes, Virginia: Money can and does buy elections. How, you ask?
Political campaigns are based on getting information out about their candidate. One Congressman told me decades ago that name recognition in election was priority number one, and further, you had to present your name at least 7 times to the electorate before they were really familiar with your name. This could include TV and press coverage (news and purchased ads), lawn signs, door-to-door campaigning, billboards, bumper stickers and so on. The idea was to have your name visible to as many people as much as possible.
This, of course, takes money, and we all know ... money is the root of all evil.
Or is it? Google Ayn Rand's idea of what money is (Atlas Shrugged, Francisco's speech about money) and you may come away with a different view. To me. it's a survival tool and just like any other tool, it can be used for both good and evil.
Back to the topic: Political money. In the last Congressional election in my district, well over $20 million dollars was spent. The vast majority of that money came from outside the district. The Republican incumbent was outspent by at least 2 to 1 and lost by less than 4,000 votes out of a quarter-million or so votes. Money made the difference. The job pays $174,000/year and to see $20 million spent tells anybody with an IQ over room temperature it's not about the pay, it's about the power. Specifically, it's about the block of power. If you can't tell, there's one hell of a power struggle going on in this country right now. While it may seem removed from you at the moment, if it continues look for it to come to a city or town near you real soon now.
When that kind of money is spent, something is expected in return: An assured vote. There is no way that kind of money is spent without an expectation of a return. That means that what the district may really want and need are very often bypassed in a vote to repay political debt, not advance the district. To influence the perception, the bought and paid-for spin doctors go to work transforming shit into shinola. Very often, these spin doctors publish newspapers or air TV "news" shows.
And so the winners are a bloc of people who don't live here and really don't give a damn about you or me, our daily lives, our daily struggles and most of all, our daily needs.
I have a solution, and it's not to completely remove money from elections.
It's to remove outside the district money from elections.
Business and political PACs would be the first to fall under this idea. Raise the money from the people and businesses that actually are in the district. NY Congressional district 22 is quite large and has a good mix of both inside its borders. For a business to donate, I think it should have an actual brick and mortar presence in the district. Post Office box and internet presence businesses would be excluded in my thinking.
This, of course, would lessen the amount of money spent on these races, and I'm not thinking this is a bad thing.
It's quite clear money raised from outside my Congressional district won the race last November. Much of this money came from New York City and believe me, NYC is not interested in what is good for Upstate; it is interested in what is good for them. To return the ability of the district to control its Representative, outside money should be removed from the equation.
And, as I predicted in an earlier blog, our freshman Democrat mendicant wasted no time in holding out the tin cup, as in this begging for alms plea found on a DC street recently:
Until the practice listed above is ended, we will always be in line behind the large financial interests that really don't give a shit about you or me.
Don't hold your breath on this one. I don't think I'll live to ever see it changed, and that's ok. When the power struggle is over in this country and one side definitively wins, then it might be time to talk about political financial reform. Until then, I can only hope.
In reality, money has taken over the electoral process and yes, Virginia: Money can and does buy elections. How, you ask?
Political campaigns are based on getting information out about their candidate. One Congressman told me decades ago that name recognition in election was priority number one, and further, you had to present your name at least 7 times to the electorate before they were really familiar with your name. This could include TV and press coverage (news and purchased ads), lawn signs, door-to-door campaigning, billboards, bumper stickers and so on. The idea was to have your name visible to as many people as much as possible.
This, of course, takes money, and we all know ... money is the root of all evil.
Or is it? Google Ayn Rand's idea of what money is (Atlas Shrugged, Francisco's speech about money) and you may come away with a different view. To me. it's a survival tool and just like any other tool, it can be used for both good and evil.
Back to the topic: Political money. In the last Congressional election in my district, well over $20 million dollars was spent. The vast majority of that money came from outside the district. The Republican incumbent was outspent by at least 2 to 1 and lost by less than 4,000 votes out of a quarter-million or so votes. Money made the difference. The job pays $174,000/year and to see $20 million spent tells anybody with an IQ over room temperature it's not about the pay, it's about the power. Specifically, it's about the block of power. If you can't tell, there's one hell of a power struggle going on in this country right now. While it may seem removed from you at the moment, if it continues look for it to come to a city or town near you real soon now.
When that kind of money is spent, something is expected in return: An assured vote. There is no way that kind of money is spent without an expectation of a return. That means that what the district may really want and need are very often bypassed in a vote to repay political debt, not advance the district. To influence the perception, the bought and paid-for spin doctors go to work transforming shit into shinola. Very often, these spin doctors publish newspapers or air TV "news" shows.
And so the winners are a bloc of people who don't live here and really don't give a damn about you or me, our daily lives, our daily struggles and most of all, our daily needs.
I have a solution, and it's not to completely remove money from elections.
It's to remove outside the district money from elections.
Business and political PACs would be the first to fall under this idea. Raise the money from the people and businesses that actually are in the district. NY Congressional district 22 is quite large and has a good mix of both inside its borders. For a business to donate, I think it should have an actual brick and mortar presence in the district. Post Office box and internet presence businesses would be excluded in my thinking.
This, of course, would lessen the amount of money spent on these races, and I'm not thinking this is a bad thing.
It's quite clear money raised from outside my Congressional district won the race last November. Much of this money came from New York City and believe me, NYC is not interested in what is good for Upstate; it is interested in what is good for them. To return the ability of the district to control its Representative, outside money should be removed from the equation.
And, as I predicted in an earlier blog, our freshman Democrat mendicant wasted no time in holding out the tin cup, as in this begging for alms plea found on a DC street recently:
Until the practice listed above is ended, we will always be in line behind the large financial interests that really don't give a shit about you or me.
Don't hold your breath on this one. I don't think I'll live to ever see it changed, and that's ok. When the power struggle is over in this country and one side definitively wins, then it might be time to talk about political financial reform. Until then, I can only hope.
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