Tuesday, September 19, 2017

FFS--here we go again, begging our gubmint not to kill us...AGAIN!

25 September 2017 update--don't forget to e-mail your Graham-Cassidy statements to GCHcomments@finance.senate.gov like I did. Do it NOW!

And KEEP CALLING!

Yes, John McCain says he'll vote NO, and Joe Manchin and Heidi Heitkamp both say they'll vote no (I called this morning)...and Cruz came out as a "no" after McCain but, I believe, before the evil GOP decided to try bribing Murkowski AGAIN, along with Flake, Collins, and Capito, yesterday...so we're anything but out of the woods yet.

I called Murkowski, Collins, Capito, Flake, Cruz, and Cornyn this morning and said,

"Republicans think you're really dumb! They think you'll fall for some bribe, but I think you're smarter than that.

"I hope you'll stand with the American people and against the Graham-Cassidy trumpcare bill, which is going to harm or kill everyone I know, from my dad who paid into Medicaid his whole life and is going to need the benefits he earned, to my sister and me who have insurance from our employers but who are in our 50s and have pre-existing conditions, and her husband has metastatic cancer, to my best friend who's a self employed entrepreneur who's alive and well today because of Obamacare.

"If you stand with us and work to keep us alive and well, you may lose the Koch brothers as donors, but you'll get millions of very enthusiastic and very grateful Democrats.

"And if you're not sure how well all those little donations will add up, just ask Howard Dean and Bernie Sanders."

CALL, CALL, CALL!!!
NOW!!!!!

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23 September 2017 update--don't forget to e-mail your Graham-Cassidy statements to GCHcomments@finance.senate.gov like I just did. Do it before you go to bed Sunday!

And KEEP CALLING!

Yes, John McCain says he'll vote NO, but there's no telling what they'll do to him, Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins, and the rest of them between now and 1 October, when we can finally take a breath again. How do you know they won't get to DINOs like Joe Manchin or Heidi Heitkamp?

CALL, CALL, CALL!

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21 September 2017 update--CALL like your life depends on it BECAUSE IT DOES!

Greetings again, friends -

All hands on deck!

Whatever you do, please keep calling the Senate Republicans!

Use the contact list I posted yesterday (just below this update), and call like your life depends on it because IT DOES!

I spent an hour and twenty minutes calling 30 of the 52 Senate Republicans this morning--I started at 8:30
--and the only reason it took me that long is that I yapped too much.

Dear ones, consider...

If it takes you two, maybe two and a half hours to call these fucking monsters to save your own and your loved ones' lives, isn't it worth it?

What good is having a job--or any other reason we might want to excuse ourselves from the fight because we "don't have the time"--if we lose health care for ourselves and our loved ones?

I work for a big defense contractor, and guess what--if Graham-Cassidy tRUmpcare ?.0 goes through, I'll lose my coverage just as surely as my self-employed bestie will lose hers via the ACA repeal.

She'll lose her coverage as a direct result of the repeal; I'll lose mine because I'm a 53-year-old walking set of pre-existing conditions that insurance companies will no longer have to cover.

And you'll be affected, too--you'll either lose your own coverage or will have someone you cherish lose theirs.

Republicans are hoping we're too battle-fatigued to keep fighting...

To that, I say

FUCK THEM...
FUCK THEM ALL!!!!!

Dunno 'bout you, but all they do when they piss me off is make me stronger.

I mean, I wouldn't already have spent hours on the phone calling these bastards like I've already done so far this week--and will spend another hour or so tomorrow finishing the job--if I were battle-fatigued.

If you're battle-fatigued, I hear ya...but weigh the benefits and drawbacks. Like I said, what's a couple hours on the phone compared to losing your and your loved ones' health care for the rest of your life?

Here are some pointers I tweeted out based on my experiences this morning:

1. Even if you're out of state, CALL THEM ALL ANYWAY. Several make a point of saying that they welcome your call...and for the ones that don't, FUCK 'EM because OUR taxes still pay their salaries!

2. State your name and the state you're calling from, saying that you're calling because health care affects us all.

3. If you get an answering machine, feel free to share a little detail regarding who you know who'll be affected and how they'll be affected. I mention that my dad paid into Medicaid his whole life and will need it someday when his health requires him to move into a facility. I say that he EARNED it--the Kochs neither paid in nor earned my dad's money, and they don't need it to survive. He does. I mention a family member with metastatic cancer whose health care would devour the family's entire income...and what will his teenage daughters do if this bill kills him before he can walk them down the aisle when they get married? And if this gawd-awful bill passes, who's going to pay for their health care when they want to have babies? People are already opting not to have babies in case this bill does pass--it can cost you ~$20,000. This family is already stretched thin and doesn't have that kind of cash laying around in their couch cushions.

4. If you get a live human, BE BRIEF. Say that you know several people who will be affected--list relationships and conditions if you can do it quickly. ACKNOWLEDGE that these aides are getting slammed and THANK them for taking your call, especially if you're out of state.

5. IMPORTANT:

  a. If you're calling a young-to-mid-career senator, tell them that, if they stand with us, we will stand with them. They may lose the Kochs as donors, but they'll gain millions of very enthusiastic Democratic donors. Those small donations add up--just ask Bernie!

  b. If you're calling an older senator--one who might not run again--tell him that saving our lives is a beautiful legacy for him to leave.

6. Thank them for everything they do (even though, yes, they are Republican turds) and say, "Have a nice day!"

-----

Friends, I know this sux.

I know that we're going to be doing this same goddamn fire drill every few months, whenever either tRUmp needs cover or lyin' Ryan and TURDleman think we're too exhausted to fight back or the Kochs get their panties in a twist because the butler served the caviar too cold and the champagne too warm or the Republican party just feels like fucking with us because they're goddamn sadistic, murderous monsters and they can.

I'm sorry, but that is the reality of it.

And here's the really sick part, in case you haven't heard...

Not only have Republicans refused to hold hearings, and not only has piece-of-human-filth ex-doctor and bill sponsor Bill Cassidy publicly and repeatedly lied about what the bill does, but Senate Republican leadership is trying to bribe Alaska's Lisa Murkowski by letting her keep Alaska...wait for it...on Obamacare!

Think about that...

If you won't have hearings about the bill to show it off and help make it even better, then your bill must really suck.

If you have to lie about the bill repeatedly in public, then your bill must really, really suck.

If you have to fucking bribe someone in your own goddamn majority party to vote for your bill, then your bill must really, really, really suck.

And if you have to bribe someone to vote for the repeal of Obamacare by letting only their state keep Obamacare, then your bill must really, really, really, really suck--especially compared to Obamacare.

Even before I call the rest of my list, I'm going to call Lisa Murkowski, for what must be the fourth time this week, to encourage her to eschew this st00pit bribe and stand once again with Us the People.

Like I said...for fuck's sake.

And if you have a friend who voted for tRUmp or protest-voted, I promise to look the other way if you spit in their beer.

To action--to the phones!!!!!

- Dot Calm's shadow

P.S.--my dad is calling all the Republican senators, too--what a trooper!

P.P.S.--if you're really in a time crunch, then please first call

your own senators 202-224-3121

and then call

Joe Manchin (he's a DINO; 202-224-3954 or 304-342-5855)
Heidi Heitkamp (another DINO; 202-224-2043 or 701-258-4648)
John McCain
Susan Collins
Lisa Murkowski
Shelley Capito
Jeff Flake

Yes, I have a day job and take care of my dad, but, as my bestie puts it, activism runs in her and my blood. If you're not as much of a firebrand as I am but still want to make a difference, please call this shorter list. The life you save may be your own!


(If you value my work, please consider supporting me on Patreon--thank you!)

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20 September 2017 update--urgent!

Friends, PLEASE light up the Senate's phones!

This is the WORST tRUmpcare bill of the lot, and the GOP is closer than ever to passing it!!!!!!

Senators take calls from all Americans--even if you don't live in their state.

Why?

Because the laws they pass affect ALL of us.

Sure, their own constituents' calls matter more to them, but they need and are willing to hear all of our voices. I promise, they will not and cannot turn you away.

So, don't let anyone tell you NOT to call every everlovin' Republican senator!

I've already called between half a dozen and a dozen, and I'm calling the rest tomorrow and Friday.

Why?

Because TURDleman wants to vote on gawd-awful tRUmpcare ?.0 NEXT WEEK!!!!!

If you don't know how gawd-awful this gawd-awful bill is, Randi explains it in less than 15 minutes. Please watch--then call the Senate like your life depends on it because, guess what, IT DOES.


Please click each contact below (source: https://contactsenators.com/party/republican) and call each one of these bastards:

Republican Senators

This is a list of all current Republican U.S. Senators (52 total):

If you want numbers for all of the senators, click here for Daily Kos's directory.

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PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT:

CCleaner malware hack: What it is and how to avoid it - PCWorld

I've changed the footer of le blawg template accordingly. Fortunately, my version is too old to have been affected, and I haven't used it lately because (1) I rely on Super Anti-Spyware and Malware Bytes and (2) I know how to do what CCleaner does and just do that stuff by hand whenever I need to. I guess that, when it comes to my computers, I'm a control freak after all.

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Greetings, fellow Dot Calm Readers, Freedom Fighters, and Truth Crusaders!

Well, here we are again--reduced AGAIN to begging our government...the government WE pay for with our hard-earned tax money...NOT to kill us.

Yet again, the Republicans are out for blood...OUR blood.

Jesus ass-twerking Christ...

At the rate we're going, with the horrific, constant stress being inflicted on us by tRUmp and his hateful, murderous Republicans, John McCain with his terminal brain cancer is going to outlive my 86-year-old dad and 53-year-old me.

I have been calling, Resistbot'ing, and tweeting my little heart out trying to remind Republicans that, HELLO, we are all people here, and, if they pass this gawd-awful tRUmpcare ?.0 (Dunno 'bout you, but I've lost count), real people I know WILL die.

My dad deserves better than having the money he paid into the system his whole life get stolen from him by lazy, idle, undeserving, mooching rich people who didn't fucking earn it.

My bestie, who's a middle-aged walking set of pre-existing conditions just like I am, deserves better than being kicked off her health care because she's self-employed.

My brother-in-law, who has metastatic cancer, deserves better than being told that my sister's entire $140,000/year salary--she's the sole income in their family of four--will have to go straight into his health care and that the rest of his family can suck it...meaning that they'd have to choose between selling the house and living in a cardboard box or watching him die, leaving my teenage nieces without their beloved dad to walk them down the aisle when they get married. Republicans apparently don't give a shit that killing him will cost them four votes--the entire family only votes Republican.

And I deserve better than having to beat my haid against the same brick wall day in, day out, week in, week out, month in, month out, because Republicans are the PRO-DEATH, pro-greed, pro-corruption, pro-treason party.

As I tweeted to John McCain, Miss Lindsey Graham is NOT his friend for putting him in the position of having to vote between keeping us alive or giving all our money to rich people who didn't earn it.

I lamented to my dad as I stepped in here to blawg that I'd much rather just relax and spend the evening with him than having to sink all my non-working hours into fighting these fuckwit Republican bastards.

And we all deserve better than the lazy, idle, undeserving, mooching rich people trying to steal OUR money--this is the money we need to LIVE, and all THEY want to do is buy yet another yacht and mansion and Lamborghini and hoard whatever they don't spend on useless-if-expensive baubles and trinkets.

I'm tellin' ya, we need to reinstate Ike's 90% top tax rate on ALL income, and we need an exchange program where all these rich, petty, expensive, low-life scum have to spend at least a year living with and working with ordinary Americans for zero pay and zero benefits, just the goodwill of using their own hands to help the poor and less fortunate get back on their feet or just plain live better lives.

The money will pay for the social services and infrastructure we so desperately need, and the exchange program will teach these sick, heartless, needlessly cruel bastards the empathy they lack.

Maybe then, we can start finding our way back toward the civil society that they and tRUmp's daily indecencies have destroyed.

But, until then, the fight against tRUmpcare ?.0 is ON...

First, sign up with the Indivisible Trumpcare site at https://www.trumpcareten.org/. Then, do whatever it tells you to do.

This website has very specific things we all can do to help--even those of us in blue states.

For example, here's a useful excerpt I'll be working from myself when I call my senators tomorrow (even though I already called them yesterday and today):

-----

Caller: I’m afraid it’s going to take more than talk and tweet storms to stop this terrible bill. We have to slow this process way down and call attention to the terrible bill Republicans are trying to jam through in total darkness. We have to use every tool available. Does [Senator] intend to withhold her consent on all Senate business until this bill dead?
Staffer: Withholding consent doesn’t actually buy us that much time. It would only delay things by 30 hours.
Caller: I’m not just talking about refusing to agree on shortening debate time on TrumpCare or other bills. I’m talking about withholding consent on amendments, placing holds on nominations, and objecting to all unanimous consent requests until the reconciliation instructions expire?. Will the [Senator] do that?
Staffer: Well, [Senator] thinks that could backfire. We’re trying to work together with Republicans on other important issues, like investigating Russian interference in our democracy. Withholding consent could make that more difficult.
Caller: Of course we want to know more about the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia. But millions of Americans’ healthcare, including [coverage loss in state, find here] is important too. That’s what’s at stake. This is the most important thing right now and the issue the Senator needs to be focusing on. I don’t think anything else is worth healthcare getting ripped away from millions of Americans.
Staffer: I’ll let [Senator] know your thoughts.
Caller: Please do. I expect her to use every tool she has. That also includes offering as many amendments as it takes to draw out Senate debate on this bill during vote-a-rama.

-----

I'm also going to be joining every event I can in my area because we are literally at do-or-die time.

Friends, I know it's exhausting.

FSM knows I'd rather be relaxing with my dad than spending every spare waking minute trying to keep these Republican monsters from destroying our country and our lives. I'd rather be playing my classical guitar and piano and writing my children's book and cartooning and dancing and hiking in the woods than slogging through this bullshit all day every day and losing weight and losing sleep.

But this is what we have to do.

We know that over 32 MILLION people will lose their health insurance--and, with it, access to their health care providers--if Graham-Cassidy passes.

We know that over 40,000 people PER YEAR will DIE if Graham-Cassidy passes.

We know that Medicaid as we know it DIES if tRUmpcare lives--we know that, in 2026, a mere ten years from now, tRUmpcare STOPS FUNDING entirely for what we now know as Obamacare subsidies and Medicaid. And once Republicans steal Obamacare and Medicaid from us, you know that Medicare and Social Security will be the next lifesaving public programs that they will steal from us to give OUR money to their rich donors and cronies.

But we also know that
WE are making a difference.

Dear ones, we've killed tRUmpcare before.

We will kill it again because we HAVE to.

Republicans only have like 11 days to ram this evil bill through. So it's time to dust ourselves off, jump back into the ring, and give it everything we've got because the push has a finite and tight deadline.

Friends, we can do this.

I'm sorry that we have to, but this is reality. It-snot going to go away just because we're tired or busy or want to get on with our lives. If we don't fight this with everything we've got, there may not be anything to get on with.

Please do everything you can--make the calls, stand in your Senators' offices, get in their faces, Resistbot and tweet--and donate what you can to Indivisible via https://www.trumpcareten.org/.

If we all work together, we can overwhelm the Republicans in Congress, and we will kill tRUmpcare AGAIN.

And, hopefully, in a few short weeks, we will have survived tRUmpcare and yet another hurricane and will have pleasanter things to speak of.

Like Paul Manafort's indictment and tRUmp's inevitable downfall. I hear that, if Bobby Three Sticks indicts all of them at the same time, it could make it a lot harder for tRUmp to pardon the lot. Hm...!

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Remember what I said about reorganizing le blawg into separate pages? I'm still working on it. When I get done, you'll be the second to know (me being first). Sry, loves--sometimes, life gets in the way. Arrrrrr! (You don't really think I'd forget International Talk Like A Pirate Day, do ya?)

Until next time, pour yourself a Fireball and treat yourself to some chocolate on my behalf. And always remember...never forget...I lurves ya madleh!

- Dot Calm's shadow

(If you value my work, consider supporting me on Patreon--please and thank you!)
 
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Hee hee!

posted by Dot Calm @ 8:02 PM