The second Obama term

[GORDON]

Historian Gar Alperovitz details in his classic study, Atomic Diplomacy, that the decision to drop the bomb was initiated largely to circumvent a Russian invasion of Japan and to ensure an American sphere of influence in the Asia-Pacific after the war.

Japan drove technical innovation on a global scale within 30 years of getting nuked. It took everyone else a long time to catch up to them... if they ever did? Had Russia taken over Japan at the end of WW2, the world would be a much darker, clunkier place today, I suspect.

Fuck 'em. Nuke 'em. Twice.

[Malcolm]

New VA dude continues the tradition of being mentally incompetent.

"The days to an appointment is really not what we should be measuring. What we should be measuring is the veterans' satisfaction," McDonald had told reporters at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast in Washington on Monday. "When you go to Disney, do they measure the number of hours you wait in line? What's important? What's important is: What's your satisfaction with the experience?"
...
"If I was misunderstood, if I said the wrong thing, I'm glad that I have the opportunity to correct it," he said. "I'm only focused on one thing, and that's better caring for veterans. That's my job, that's why I'm here."

[Malcolm]

Vets aren't dying fast enough, so the administration is pretending they are.

Every year, about 400,000 veterans or others receiving VA benefits die and their awards are canceled, according to department statistics. Of the roughly two million veterans declared deceased in the past five years, 4,201 cases involved incorrect declarations that the VA eventually corrected before resuming payments to the still-living beneficiary.

The fact that the fuck up rate is above 1% is insane.

[Malcolm]

VA has plan to deal with the lack of doctors...

The plan, which would allow nurses with advanced training to broaden their responsibilities for patients, is drawing attention to a bitter debate over the relative roles of doctors and nurses. Because of VA's high visibility, it is likely to be closely watched.

We STILL want to waste time posturing against and threatening Snowden while he still in permanent asylum in a country we really don't like.

"We can certainly argue about the way in which Snowden did what he did, but I think that he actually performed a public service by raising the debate that we engaged in and by the changes that we made," Holder told former Obama White House adviser David Axelrod on an episode of "The Axes Files" podcast released Monday.

Go fuck yourself.

[Malcolm]

The VA is one of the biggest drug dealers in the country.

Inspectors for the VA in 2014 found that doctors were over-prescribing opioid painkillers, leading to the “Candy Land” nickname. Jason Simcakoski, a 35-year-old Marine veteran, died from “mixed drug toxicity” at Tomah five months after the inspector general closed the case. He died days after chief of staff Dr. David Houlihan approved adding another opiate to the 14 drugs he had already been prescribed. Houlihan was nicknamed “candy man” by some patients.

Fortunately, it only took a few years for people to catch on something was wrong.

The Senate report found that inspector general investigators suspected Houlihan and nurse practitioner Deborah Frasher “appeared to be impaired” when they were interviewed in 2012, but no action was taken. Houlihan was fired in November 2015 after being on administrative leave for months. Frasher, who worked alongside Houlihan, resigned in February 2015.

I bring this up because the shooting this past weekend seems kind of related to crappy medical care.

The crazed gunman behind Sunday's deadly mass shooting in Houston served in Afghanistan and may have been suffering from PTSD, his dad told a local TV station.
...
"We have not received confirmation, but I strongly suspect, I really believe this is a PTSD thing," Garza's dad told Channel 2.

[Malcolm]

FDA commended for their prompt attention to food recalls.

The Food and Drug Administration is under fire from the Office of Inspector General for inefficient and ineffective food recall procedures that left the public at risk for as much as six months after the agency knew there was a problem.

[Leisher]

Study claims Obamacare will result in trillions less in spending than expected.

Due to the fact that mostly liberal outlets are running with this, I'm guessing it's something that can be taken apart easily.

End of the day, and without reading that article I'll make three points about it that negate this study for me:
1. It's still a mandatory purchase that's been forced on Americans, which is supposed to be unconstitutional.
2. It still broke almost every other promise.
3. It still would have been cheaper to simply gather a list of names of the uninsured and have companies bid on covering them.

[TheCatt]

That's a really dishonest headline. I mean it's factual correct, but implies causality with Obamacare, of which there is none apparent.

It's incredibly tricky to dissociate the cause of any particular policy on the effect of health-care spending. In addition to the Great Recession, reimbursement cuts because of sequestration would have had an effect on spending and the Supreme Court decision to make the expansion of Medicaid optional also reduced spending compared with the original projection.

[GORDON]

And are they still factoring "savings over ten years?" They do that when they want their numbers to look better.

[Malcolm]

Congressional jack-asses are literally sitting down on the job.

[Malcolm]

Supreme Court:

Tied on immigration but blatant racism is still cool.

[Vince]

Congressional jack-asses are literally sitting down on the job.

They are going to end the sit in now that they've reached their fund raising goals. I'm sure the media will be talking about them profiting off the backs of dead homosexuals never.

[Malcolm]

Supreme Court nixes case on birth control. This eight member thing is getting to be fucking ridiculous. Aside from that, this means they aren't interested in hearing shit until they're back up to 9, I bet.

In 2007, Washington state passed a law making it illegal to refuse to stock a drug for reasons of conscience. It was challenged by the owners of a supermarket-based pharmacy who declined on religious grounds to handle morning-after pills.
...
The state defended the law, saying it did not interfere with the religious freedom of individual pharmacists, who can refuse to fill prescriptions for moral or religious reasons. But the employers — the pharmacies — must ensure that customers get their prescribed medications.

If you don't want to sell pharmaceuticals to the public, don't open a fucking pharmacy.

[GORDON]

It's the cake thing all over again.

[TPRJones]

Sort of. With the cake thing it was more "we don't want to serve your kind here" while with this its more "giving you this will make me complicit in the murder of your child".

I think they're both bunk, but they do seem to be slightly different sorts of bunk.

[Malcolm]

Congress works together to handle Zika-infected mosquitoes making their way to the US.

Senate Democrats on Tuesday blocked a Zika funding bill put forward by Republicans, objecting to a range of measures, including most prominently limits on funding for Planned Parenthood. The bill allows Zika funding for community health centers and other providers but not Planned Parenthood.
...
Democrats blasted that as a political move, saying that Planned Parenthood’s contraceptive services could help prevent the spread of the virus through sex, and help women avoid pregnancy and the potential serious birth defects that come with Zika.

But wait, there are calls for bipartisanship.

Republicans, though, are accusing Democrats of opposing the Zika funding bill simply to protect a “special interest.”

“Special interests got to them, special interest groups snapped their fingers and the Democrats came running,” Sen. John Thune (S.D.), the Senate’s No. 3 Republican, told reporters. “And as a consequence, there is not going to be funding for Zika.”

No wait, what I meant to say is "they're bickering like fucking two-year olds in a sandbox." I'm sure John Thune's never taken a kickback from anyone and his constituents out in Devil's Scrotum, South Dakota, are proud of his participation in this obstructionist bullshit. I'm supposed to believe anyone's got anything on their mind besides reelection?

"They can't even agree if they want to piss, much less pick a pot to piss in."

- General Maxson, BoS

[Vince]

Democrats look like asses on this one.

[Malcolm]

Democrats look like asses on this one.

As opposed to the pachyderms trying to fuck over the same org they've hated for a few decades? This isn't even an abortion thing. It's a "give them money to find out if your kid's going to be born with a pinhead" thing. They are the reproductive health center of choice for quite a few people and singling them out makes the Reality TV Party look like equal partner assholes. If they were actually concerned about anyone's well being, unborn or otherwise, I might give them a pass. As it stands, every single member looks like a grandstanding, self-serving douchebag only concerned with bilking the voters.

[Vince]

Democrats look like asses on this one.

As opposed to the pachyderms trying to fuck over the same org they've hated for a few decades? This isn't even an abortion thing. It's a "give them money to find out if your kid's going to be born with a pinhead" thing. They are the reproductive health center of choice for quite a few people and singling them out makes the Reality TV Party look like equal partner assholes. If they were actually concerned about anyone's well being, unborn or otherwise, I might give them a pass. As it stands, every single member looks like a grandstanding, self-serving douchebag only concerned with bilking the voters.

PP doesn't have the facilities or the expertise to run these tests. They'll end up taking federal dollars and do like they do for 80% of their "women's services" that require competent doctors and refer them to a real health care facility. No, no more money for butcher mills. Not my money. Fucking inhuman savages.

[Malcolm]

PP doesn't have the facilities or the expertise to run these tests.

If they don't, I guarantee they have labs that do.