Remember faithful reader cope, who occasionally shares lovely nature photos? Here’s a photo he took of some distressed flowers:
And also a story to go along with them, shared with cope’s permission (and with just a few alterations to protect his privacy):
Four weeks ago tonight, at about 9:15 (past bedtime here in copeville), we received a phone call from the Mayo Clinic that a donor liver had been found for my wife. She had been on Mayo’s liver donor list since December. Needless to say, within 30 minutes we were on our way. At about 7:45 the next morning, she was wheeled away for prep and transplant surgery and by 3:00 in the afternoon, she was back in her room.
After about 10 days at Mayo, she was transferred to [another hospital] for physical and occupational therapy and for treatment of fluid on her lungs. Throughout this time, my sister-in-law and I made a tag-team effort of being with her at all time, sleeping in her hospital room during the rare times when sleep was to be had. I am still working as a high school science teacher (but only 45 days away from retirement!) so I had weekend duty while SIL had the week days. Happily, spring break intervened… You can appreciate our utter and total joy at being told just 3 weeks and one day after surgery that we could come back to our house and our dogs. My wife is doing extremely well (we hit the local Michael’s for some retail therapy this afternoon) and this is the closest to “normal” our lives have been for months.
The fact that my wife even has health insurance, much less a sufficiently robust policy to absorb almost all of the costs of such a major procedure is entirely due to the Affordable Care Act. To be sure, since November’s election, we had not been particularly confident that she would still have coverage at the time a donor might be found (we expected to wait for months and months). Happily for us, we need not sweat the big stuff any more.
My wife worked for almost 35 years as an RN doing geriatrics, AIDS, cancer, burns, labor and delivery and finally, in her last chapter as a nurse, home health care. She has been universally loved by her patients and co-workers as she is one of those giving and loving and compassionate and empathetic people who fortunately walk this earth. She is even now loved by the nurses and techs who have been tending her for the last few weeks, many of whom she brings small gifts to when we make our frequent returns to Mayo. To have had to watch her waste away as her deteriorating liver tried (and failed) to kill her was a miserable, debilitating, depressing experience for all of us who love her. Our relief at having broken on through to the other side of these emotions cannot be expressed in words.
I chose this picture of a disheveled, sunlit flower against a background of dark, looming clouds as a pretty good visual metaphor for what our family experienced these past few months: the struggle to maintain a positive, sunny disposition in a dire and ominous situation.
See, sometimes, good things do happen.
Best jackal wishes to cope’s wife as she recovers. Her story is a great reminder about the stakes in Trump’s war on the ACA. The shitgibbon was dealt a defeat last week, but he and the other ghouls in the GOP will be back. For all its faults, the ACA does represent a huge top-down transfer of wealth, and Republicans will fight an insult like that to the last breath. We need to remain vigilant.
Open thread!
zhena gogolia
This is what I want my tax dollars to go for.
ruemara
That’s a beautiful thing. Speedy recovery to Cope’s wife and mille blessings on the heads of President Obama and everyone who made sure the ACA passed. May the republicans earn mille curses for their hateful, callous attempt to harm people by repealing it and for their undermining it.
Mike J
Are those sunflowers? The sunflower state, Kansas, voted just yesterday to expand Medicaid. Good news!
Villago Delenda Est
There need to be a lot more top-down transfers of wealth to make up for the last 37 years of militant down-top transfers of wealth. If Uday, Qusay, and Lolita suffer, so be it.
The Fat Kate Middleton
Oh, the very best jackal wishes indeed to Cope and Mrs. Cope. Going through my own health challenges right now, but nothing as overwhelming as what she is knowing. (I don’t mind sharing – I’ll just say that this old body needs radiation therapy, but does like to complain about it.) So happy you’re all home, and all the love shown her by her coworkers (and by you) touched me greatly.
Eric U.
And the average 1%’er would get a $20 tax break in trade for killing people like cope’s wife. The .02%’ers get some more money like that, but they don’t need it.
on edit: I would love to know the exact numbers for the statement above to see exactly how little this would matter to people I know. I do the occasional consulting job for a rabid Republican who really probably doesn’t want to kill anyone, but he is propagandized to think that the ACA is costing him a lot of money
Villago Delenda Est
@zhena gogolia: THIS.
Best of luck to Cope’s Wife and Cope and all her caregivers and family and well everyone involved.
Mnemosyne
Phew! I’m glad Mrs. Cope was able to have the new equipment installed in time. I hope you are able to have many additional happy years together thanks to PPACA!
TenguPhule
@Villago Delenda Est: I heard that suffering builds character.
The whole Trump clan is so deficient in moral character that they all obviously need a complete run through all of Dante’s Circles of Hell. Twice. Although the minor can be excused, provided he pledges himself to a distant monastery and takes a vow of poverty and chasity.
MomSense
Sending my very best to Cope and Mrs. Cope.
@The Fat Kate Middleton:
Sending healing thoughts to you, too!!!
geg6
@zhena gogolia:
Exactly.
Sending all my most positive thoughts to cope and Mrs. cope. And thank the FSM for Obama, Nancy SMASH, Harry Reid, all the Obama era congresscritters (and especially those that sacrificed their seats to bring this to us all), the marchers and town hall attendees and the current congressional Dems for making this and many other happy stories possible.
TenguPhule
@Mike J: That just leaves them with a one billion dollar state deficit, a giant wildfire and crumbling infrastructure.
efgoldman
@Mike J:
Can/will Shitstain Brownback veto it?
David Hunt
So glad to read that things went well for Mrs. cope. Best wishes.
rikyrah
May his wife fully recover.
She is but one story of why we fight.
The Democrats saved lives.
Cermet
And a super special thanks to the person who signed up to be an organ donor if they were killed in an accident; let us not forget that this person has enabled another human to have a chance for life. Everyone on balloon-juice should be an organ donor.
Chris
“Why the ACA matters.”
Because without it, my current $130 a month payment for health insurance would be somewhere between three and four hundred, and I simply can’t afford that, which means I’d have no health insurance, which means I’d be screwed every time I went to the doctor. And while I’m not afflicted with any life-threatening illnesses, neither am I so healthy that I can afford to live like that.
lollipopguild
@TenguPhule: Suffering does build character but after awhile you have more character than you need and you cannot give it away, although it would be nice if you could.
clay
What a wonderful story! Thank you so much for sharing, and blessings to you and your family!!
And, although I doubt it needs to be said ’round these parts, just as a reminder to those who attack the ACA from the left: No, it’s not ideal. No, it’s not where we want it to be. But incremental progress is still progress, and progress means millions of people are better off than they were 7 years ago. Thanks Obama!
Currants
@zhena gogolia: YES, me too. My nephew’s wife has Gitelman’s syndrome. [Basically, her kidneys fail to retain potassium and magnesium. Some people take meds as needed and some are regularly hooked up to ivs. She is toward the extreme end; one of her 5 required meds costs $3000 for 2 mos, and she can very quickly wind up in ER and ICU if she gets a tummy bug.] So far she’s got insurance because she’s got a job, but they were very worried about ACA repeal (and probably made more phone calls in the last two weeks to their very Red Rs even than I know about).
So yes, DELIGHTED for my tax money to go to things like this, and for poor kids to have breakfast and lunch at school for free. Also Head Start programs.
Happy to hear about it, Mr. and Mrs. Cope. HUGS all around for your family, and thanks for the sunflowers.
SiubhanDuinne
Wow! What a story (and what a photo to illustrate it!)
Congratulations to Mrs Cope and everyone in the Circle of Cope (family, friends, neighbours, colleagues, medical team) for a good outcome, and gratitude to the liver’s original host for designating him- or herself as an organ donor.
Just a wonderful story to remind us all why we give money and march and make phone calls.
Smiling Mortician
@efgoldman: He tried. They overrode.
SiubhanDuinne
@The Fat Kate Middleton:
I’m sorry to hear about your current challenges. All best wishes, and to the degree you feel so inclined, please let us know how it goes for you.
Ian G.
@zhena gogolia:
Amen
Currants
@lollipopguild: Yeah. William Somerset Maugham comes to mind.
“No more stupid apology for pain has ever been devised than that it elevates. It is an explanation due to the necessity of justifying pain from the Christian point of view. Pain is nothing more than the signal given by the nerves that the organism is in circumstances hurtful to it; it would be as reasonable to assert that a danger signal elevates a train. But one would have thought that the ordinary observation of life was enough to show that in the great majority of cases, pain, far from refining, has an effect which is merely brutalising….Poverty is also pain….”
randy khan
It’s good to have reminders about why these fights matter.
And blessings to the donor and the donor’s family (not to mention good wishes to the Copes).
Hungry Joe
Trump putting in a full day today — i.e., signing his name a few times and holding up his signature like a proud kindergartner having formed a legible letter A — slashing environmental regulations to bloody ribbons.
Run coal!
MjOregon
Blessings to Cope & his wife. Some days I so need a positive note to keep my spirits up during this new age of “what’s mine is mine and what’s yours is mine too.” Sending healing thoughts your way, Mrs. Cope! So happy to see tax dollars at work for a positive, life saving cause. Now I need to go tend to my suddenly leaky eyes…
Sunny Raines
Decent people need to come to grips with the unavoidable conclusion that a very significant portion of the society is sadistic at their core and they’ve taken over the Republican Party and the majority of the levers of power in the society
narya
Awesome!!
My parents (whom I heading to visit) are in their 80s, and are a walking, talking bundle of examples of what good health insurance can do: quadruple bypass; bladder cancer; joint replacement; kidney transplant; spinal fusion; etc.–and that’s scratching the surface of the past 10 years. All made possible by my dad’s union. And, as a result, my parents are still functioning, and contributing, members of society, helping out their grandkids, delivering meals on wheels (yes, seriously), making GOTV calls on behalf of Obama and Clinton; and enjoying life.
Cope, I’m so happy for your family; I hope it transforms your lives the way my mom’s kidney transformed hers.
TenguPhule
@Cermet: A moment of silence perhaps? They died so she might have a chance to live.
Major Major Major Major
“Jackal Wishes” would be a good name for a book.
Congrats & jackal wishes to cope.
Mary G
What a great story and long life to all in the cope clan! This is why I fight.
humboldtblue
Hot damn! We need some goddamn good news around this goddamn joint filled with smart, witty, dark-edged muthas.
Damn good news indeed and I don’t even know who the hell Cope is. Good goddamn news, Cope!
3Jane Tessier-Ashpool (a/k/a Lorinda Pike)
Those ninja hamsters are eating onions in here again. I am so glad Cope and the Mrs. are getting back to normal. Good luck to you both. This is the way I WANT my tax dollars spent. (And Michael’s – if you mean the craft store – is definitely good therapy!)
And blessings on the family of the organ donor. I am one, and want everything taken from me that could be used by someone else when I exit this earthly form. Or – in the event that I slide triumphantly into home plate all smashed and completely used up, and not suitable for anything else – my last ride will be to the Body Farm in Tennessee, to be given up to the elements and used for forensic education. (My niece is working on her masters in forensics…)
lurker dean
best recovery wishes for cope’s wife!
rikyrah
@The Fat Kate Middleton:
Sending you positive thoughts and prayers.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
Pussý.
He didn’t want to get boooed like Dubya did
Major Major Major Major
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: He’s probably never thrown a ball before.
humboldtblue
@narya:
I just came back from a week-long visit with my dad as he enters the last stage of recovery from breaking his leg after his 84-year old ass fell down last December. The list of medical procedures he and mom had looks very similar to yours and while most of that is due to the fact that they were/are brilliant people and money-managers who planned and spent well, they still had to have access to affordable, quality health care.
I must say that the Kaiser campus in Woodland Hills is a massive fucking place that had me intimidated the moment we pulled up. I was never comfortable in hospitals (not even when dropping someone off when my job called for it years ago) and walking the labyrinthine hallways gave me the creeps. His Doctor is fantastic, however, and he was very fortunate that doctor was on duty they night they brought him in, it was the same doc that replaced his hip.
TenguPhule
@humboldtblue: So you’re not here for our dark pathos, melodrama and industrial grade snarking? I’m crushed.
Martha
@The Fat Kate Middleton: Take care of yourself. Spring is coming, which hopefully will at least make you smile.
Yarrow
What a wonderful story! Wishing cope and Mrs. cope the very best. So glad you can look forward to many years together.
The Moar You Know
First off: Cope and Mrs. Cope. I am thrilled that I and every American were part of this. May the recovery be swift and permanent.
Now for a grim counterpoint: not everyone is insured. And we need to start working on that, assuming we ever can muster the will to get back into the driver’s seat. I have no doubt about my fellow Juicers. I have lots of doubt about, well, pretty much everyone else. We NEED national health care, full stop. And the following story will illustrate perfectly what I’m talking about:
Last night, my wife gets a call from her sister. Wants painkillers. Not what you think.
She popped her Achilles.
Wife says “WTF, get your ass down to the ER, painkillers aren’t going to fix that!”
Sister (who is a walking graveyard of dysfunction) comes clean. No health insurance. Refused to do Obamacare “because that’s for poor people and we aren’t poor and have never taken a dime of government money”. Which is partially true. Neither husband or wife has worked since they got married in 2008, so technically they’re poor as shit. But they found a way…they’ve emptied out her father’s retirement savings. He’s written them over a couple of hundred thousand bucks worth of checks over the last nine years. He’s of sound mind and it’s his money. Hey, it’s my wife’s inheritance, but that apparently is not a concern for anyone save my wife. She’s OK with it. She won’t be taking care of them when that time comes, and looks at that as the price she had to pay. But yes, it’s true, that by God they’ve never taken a dime of government money.
The kicker: they’re Democrats. And more liberal than I am. But they refuse to acknowledge that they’re poor. They both fly into a rage when their finances are even brought up – and as they are getting towards their mid-40s without ever having worked, it’s getting brought up. You don’t even know “white privilege” until you’ve spent a day with these two. Why yes, they have kids. Two, of course. The kids don’t know – literally do not know – what a “job” is.
I don’t know what the prognosis is for “untreated Achilles rupture” but I’ll bet it’s pretty fucking bad.
So yeah, there’s a coterie of idiots out there for whom Obamacare won’t cut it because they just will not bother, or feel it’s beneath their dignity. And those people need insurance too. Even though I frankly feel that some of them should just be chucked into a woodchipper and their families sent a note stating “you raised an idiot, next time do a better job”.
/end enraged rant
humboldtblue
@TenguPhule:
The first time I ever came to this goddamn place (2006?) was to cuss out TBogg after he said Cole was turning a new leaf. I cussed out Cole too of course, that’s what we should all do just because he’s Cole.
Mike J
@efgoldman:
785-368-8500 is the number for Kansans to let him know what they think.
randy khan
@David Canadian Anchor Baby Koch:
Yeah, “scheduling conflicts.” Honestly, most fans probably are just as happy even when a popular President doesn’t show. The added security is a real pain in the neck.
TenguPhule
@The Moar You Know:
I’m deeply sorry, but even Universal Medical Coverage will not cover Batshit Insane Suicidal Lazy Lunatics.
At least you married the cream of their genetic crop.
Baud
Wonderful story, cope.
@The Moar You Know:
I’m not sure how your story speaks to the need for national health care. It’s still government money.
Davebo
Best wishes to Mr. and Mrs. Cope and sympathies to the donor’s family.
TenguPhule
@humboldtblue: I came over when he had his come to “Tire Rims and Anthrax” moment back when the Bush II adventure finally made him come to his senses.
Good times. Compared to now.
Major Major Major Major
@The Moar You Know:
I’m sorry but if somebody can’t be bothered to sign up for free insurance because it’s ‘government money’ then I don’t really think I need to concern myself with whether or not they ‘need’ insurance. It’s there. (Note of course that this is inspired by the people above who would be presumably eligible for fully subsidized insurance.)
Mike J
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch:
President of Egypt arrives Monday, game is Tuesday. It’s possible there’s an actual conflict, but with Trump it’s safer to assume they’re lying.
japa21
@randy khan: I assume he is sending SIL Jared to be his relief pitcher. After all, he has him doing everything else for him.
Yutsano
@Mike J:
The goal is to either get Brownback on board or get enough to override the veto.
Oh yeah, North Carolina, Virginia, Georgia, and even Idaho are getting on the expansion train.
Lizzy L
Cheers for Mrscope & Cope and loving family members. Cheers for the ACA. Cheers for the Democrats who made it happen. Thanks, Obama! Cheers for us, for our calls and faxes and marches and snarling resistance.
Cheers for Governor Paul LePage of Maine, who has this (via TPM) to say to his fellow Republicans:
First intelligent thing I’ve heard from the man.
Baud
@Lizzy L: No kidding. How low have things gotten that Le Page is making sense?
japa21
@Lizzy L: What alien took over LePage’s body?
Major Major Major Major
@Yutsano: @Lizzy L: @Baud: Now that the ACA repeal is dead, expect to see the remaining Gooper states jump on the expansion bandwagon. Good for the bottom line.
The Moar You Know
@TenguPhule: Actually, I didn’t. My wife was adopted, lol.
My blood pressure agrees with you, as does my conscience. I’ve worked since I was 13. My wife, since she was 15. I don’t understand these people. And to be completely honest, I kind of hate them. Feel bad for the kids though.
@Baud: Point is, in Britain or Canada, you just walk into the damn hospital. No matter how fucking stupid you are, or whether you’re some anti-government lunatic (both apply here) you get treated and don’t end up being a burden on society.
WereBear
@The Fat Kate Middleton: Best to you.
And to the cope fam!
Felonius Monk
@Lizzy L:
I believe you misunderstood what he said. He is still an asshole and this is not an intelligent statement. He is not supportive of the ACA.
laura
Thank you for sharing this good news! Let a thousand Mrs. Copes bloom, and special blessings for organ donors.
Felonius Monk
Best wishes to Mrs. Cope for a full and speedy recovery and a healthy future.
Baud
@The Moar You Know: My point is that if one is an anti-government lunatic, they won’t go to the government run hospital.
Admittedly, since we’ve left the realm of sanity, maybe people like your SIL would view the two things differently. But of the many arguments in favor of universal health care, this one is not near the top of the list.
hovercraft
Great news :- )
Best of luck to cope and mrs. cope. Glad to hear that she is recovering nicely, and out and about already. What a wonderful testimonial about the life saving benefits Obamacare has brought. Now you can both look forward to a healthy retirement with this transplant out of the way. Enjoy each other and this wonderful new chapter you are both embarking on.
Also great picture.
Mnemosyne
@The Moar You Know:
I think the other commenters’ point is that your in-laws are so dumb that they would probably refuse to walk into a Canadian-style ER, too. And hide behind the curtains pretending not to be home if a Canadian-style house call was made by a doctor or nurse practitioner.
Keith P.
Spicer: “If the president puts Russian salad dressing on his salad tonight, somehow that’s a Russian connection,”
Me: “No, but you’re telling me Trump puts ketchup on *salads*, too?!???!”
Brachiator
Sincere best wishes to cope and mrs. cope.
This is very good news in very hard times.
D58826
@Mike J: Let the Pres. of Egypt throw out the first pitch:-)
sharl
What a great story, and timely as well. This shit truly matters.
Best wishes to ms. cope, and the entire cope family, for long and healthy lives filled with satisfaction.
Kathleen
@The Fat Kate Middleton: Sending prayers and healing thoughts your way. Also thanks so much Mr. Cope for sharing that uplifting story. My best to you and Mrs. Cope. I’m so thankful that courageous Democrats had a key role in helping your lovely wife to remain on the planet.
Baud
@D58826: Ha! That would be great. Or maybe Obama could do it.
debbie
Congratulations to cope and his better half! Very cheering to read this happy news.
Major Major Major Major
Top ten reasons Trump declined to throw out the first pitch
cmorenc
The difference between Ryan and the far-right “Freedom Caucus” on health-care is not one of fundamental policy goals, but of window-dressing. Ryan thinks constructing a fraudulent facade that pretends to create health insurance for many Americans is necessary for political purposes; the Freedom Caucus is unwilling to even put on a charade that they give a shit about a federal role in helping provide health insurance, both out of hard-right conservative ideology and because any federal role also only takes money away from the “makers” into the hands of “takers”. But fundamentally, they share the same end-game goal: destroy the federal safety net, only that Ryan wants to set up enough financial and institutional friction to fray it into worthless tatters over the next couple of decades; the Freedom Caucus wants to immediately blow everything up.
debbie
@Major Major Major Major:
But vroom vrooming in a big truck is presidential?
Lizzy L
@Felonius Monk: The issue is not whether he supports the ACA. The issue is that he recognizes that letting the ACA fail (as Trump and Ryan have said they want to do) would hurt people, and he thinks that hurting people is bad.
According to TPM,
This sounds remarkably like the California movement toward statewide healthcare for all. I don’t know if he means it, or if it could succeed, but anything that gets people thinking about universal healthcare, whether single payer or hybrid, is good.
D58826
@Baud: No I think Obama would throw some heat high and inside in der Fuhrer’s direction.
Seanly
So glad to hear that his wife was able to get the care she needed.
My wife & I have a decent plan (though with high deductibles & a moderate max payout) through my employer. However, she too was saved by ACA. In the past, most of my employer plans had a $1 million lifetime limit. Her Hodgkin’s Lymphoma treatment ended up not being too bad (and that was on a plan with another employer), but she’s well over probably $1.2 or $1.3 million just from her ALL treatments and blood stem cell transplant plus all the attendant hospital stays. Included in that is the month in a rehab hospital after 3 weeks in Vanderbilt’s MICU when her lungs tried to kill her. Plus then hospitalizations for C. diff as she was recovering.
Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic majorities of 2008, 2009 are why I wasn’t a widower.
Iowa Old Lady
Thanks to Cope for telling us this story. It’s the best thing I’ve read today.
Major Major Major Major
@Lizzy L:
Given that this is the first time LePage has seemed to hold this opinion, the smart money says we should hold out to see how exactly his new plan hurts people.
ruckus
@The Fat Kate Middleton:
I just went through 9 weeks of radiation treatment and while the entire process is a pain in the ass, after all was said and done there are plenty of worse things in the world.
For cope and spouse – congrats on the new liver, best of luck with the recovery.
These are the types of stories that we need to make sure that are heard, loudly.
Mnemosyne
@Lizzy L:
Like everyone else, I’m skeptical that LePage has actually had a “come to Jesus moment” about healthcare when he’s been an unremitting asshole about it (and everything else) for the past 6 years.
JGabriel
Betty Cracker @ Top:
It’s even worse, an even greater insult than that:
It shows that government works, can even save lives, when run by competent people of good will.
Cope, congratulations to you and your wife for your good fortune. I’m glad to hear a donor was found in time to help her, and for the relief it must bring you both.
Florida Frog
@Seanly: @Seanly: @Seanly: @Seanly: I am so sorry your wife had to go through that but so very happy that the ACA was there to make it all work. I am grateful every day for Barack Obama and everyone who did the heavy lifting to make life better for all of us. Best wishes for a long and healthy life for you both.
ruemara
Love hearing all your stories.
ruckus
@Chris:
Someone was asking me why we need the ACA back in late 2013. My answer was that quotes two yrs before had been $1200/month, pretty much everything not covered due to preexisting. With the ACA $364/month with actual coverage.
Mike in NC
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: I remember when Cheney got booed bigly at a baseball game. He was clearly wearing a Kevlar vest under his jacket. Good times.
hovercraft
@The Moar You Know:
WTF?
I guess they are living the life of trust fund snowflakes without the actual trust fund? How exactly do they plan to survive once the old man kicks the bucket, or is he wealthy enough to leave them money for the rest of their lives?
They may claim to be liberals but they are not, liberals do not resent accepting help from the government. While we don’t relish it, we understand that as a community we must all help one another. Unless they are reluctant because they know they’ve never contributed a goddamn thing in which case I get it. If they simply think they are better than all “those” people sucking on the government teat, then they are not liberals, they just think they are.
humboldtblue
@Major Major Major Major:
No. 3 is simply beautiful
Lizzy L
@Major Major Major Major:
@Mnemosyne:
Oh, I know. But remember FDR — “Now make me do it.” If Page gets loud public attaboys for loudly and publicly declaring that he doesn’t want the ACA to fail because Hurting People Is Bad, it makes it more difficult for him to turn around and take it all back. Not saying he won’t.
Quinerly
Nunes saying to ABC that he will never reveal his sources and methods…not even to the intel committee he chairs.
debbie
@Quinerly:
What a nut job. Today I heard him say he hadn’t canceled the hearing, only postponed it.
Miss Bianca
Yay for image and story and happy outcomes for cope and spouse!
Baud
@Quinerly: I’m confident Schiff isn’t going to take that as the final answer.
dmsilev
@Quinerly: He’s a Republican; he probably thinks that “enhanced interrogation techniques” are effective.
Let’s find out.
SiubhanDuinne
@Seanly:
That sentence gave me the shivers. If you haven’t already, I hope you might even now consider writing to Obama, Pelosi, Reid, and other key Dem leaders from that time (maybe Joe “BFD” Biden, too) and tell them exactly that in exactly those words. We need to let the folks who fought for us know that we notice and greatly appreciate what they did.
hovercraft
@Baud:
The GOP has been doing this to themselves for years now, remember way back when the crazies were very distinct from the normal republicans, I mean Bachman, Palin, King and Goehmert were wackos that no one took seriously. King was on TV this morning talking about the Twitler administrations immigration initiatives, and the has the presidents ear. Le Page is still an insane, racist piece of shit, but since most of the party has climbed down into the gutter with him, he almost seems normal.
Millard Filmore
@Quinerly:
Is there any evidence that Nunes really went and got sources and methods? It could be an empty con job.
dmsilev
@JGabriel:
And also, note that a good-sized swath of the GOP has implicitly conceded this. A large number of the dissenters last week were doing so because they were concerned about all the people on expanded Medicaid who would be losing their coverage. Of course, another large number were dissenting because the bill didn’t propose feeding the poor into wood chippers and using them for fertilizer.
Baud
@hovercraft: I recall the decline. I do hope Trump is the apocryphal peak wingnut because I can’t see us surviving a further descent into madness.
bemused
@The Moar You Know:
Wow. They sound lazy as hell and able to stay that way with daddy giving them money. They are only in the 40’s. They’re going to be in world of hurt when the parents pass away and money eventually gone.
FlipYrWhig
@ruckus: Yes, but you were also free to pay $0 for nothing, which is the best kind of freedom, Republican freedom.
Quinerly
@Millard Filmore:
Who knows? I’m beyond WTF. All surreal. ABC and Reuters both reporting.
p.a.
Actual text from a Rethug relative today about 1pm. I didn’t exactly do a Mayhew-Anderson job defending ACA, but believe me, this guy is so fucking stupid if I were Clarence the fucking Angel and showed him his life w/o ACA it wouldn’t have mattered.
my replies in ital.
I did get some good news today! The hospital called the Medicare/Or Medicaid office to check my status for the Unaffordable Taxpayer sucking health care. My paperwork and application is pending final approval. I will get it, just takes 30 days when filled and the healthcare advocate filled it just 2 weeks ago. So now all surgery and medical scans and more will be covered. However instead of paying $40 per doctors visit the healthcare advocates I will be paying $90 per visit! I also have to pay hundreds of dollars in co pays if not this year then next , for when my income goes over a tiny $16,000 per year, which I can make sub teaching, my co pays skyrocket as though I was a rich man!!! I pray they will make a better healthcare system! Trump and the conservative Republicans are my only hope!!!
U r clueless
Okay, I will give you all copies of all my medical bills, you can cate (sic) you i that I am right! Next election please vote Republican?! put your money $ where your mouth is. Each check you right will edu (sic)
I never said you didn’t have bills. Trumpcare didn’t cover preexisting conditions, which is what you have. You’d go into a risk pool market, just like the preObamacare world of 2013. You (your parents) would be on the hook for every penny. Even your mom admitted Ocare helped Russ.
PS if you want better medical pass your fucking certification and get full time SOMEWHERE. [ETA: he’s failed his teacher cert test 4 times. 47 years old, lives at home, never even bought his own car.]
Hey if there was no Ocare u think your dad would sell the beach house to pay the bills or would he let you or Russ croak? I can’t wait to ask him!
Baud
@p.a.:
Call me crazy but that seem like a decent tradeoff.
p.a.
@Baud: this guy couldn’t think his way out of a paper bag if given a machete and written instructions.
WereBear
@The Moar You Know: I have tried three times to come up with a response, and I’m basically gobsmacked.
What a miserable existence for them, their kids, and everyone who has to deal with them.
TenguPhule
@Baud:
Don’t forget, Trump has already spawned.
Millard Filmore
@Quinerly: OK. I remember Nixon’s last days as President. One of the last ditch actions was to put a high ranking Congress critter up to the news microphones and say “Nixon is innocent. I have seen the evidence.”
Quinerly
Tweety is very subdued tonight.
Jeffro
@Baud:
Maybe the combination of him, Ryan, and the Turtle is Peak Wingnut? WingnutiGoth, the 3-in-1, like something out of HP Lovecraft?
Jeffro
@p.a.:
Is this maybe a clue as to hard-core Trump support? Life failures? People with too much time on their hands? Both?
Didn’t some comedian point out in the primaries that Trump was the perfect candidate for folks whose life didn’t turn out like they planned…and whose first instinct was to blame others??
Origuy
@Major Major Major Major:
Trump played first base at that military school he went to. He was scouted by the Phillies.
TenguPhule
@Quinerly: Its not 3 am yet. The coke hasn’t kicked in.
cope
A quick thank you to all who have expressed kind wishes for my wife’s recovery. The ACA coverage we are eligible for is pretty damn expensive because that I am still working but less than half what adding her to my work plan would have cost.
Also, too, an expression of gratitude to the donor. Protocol is that one year after her transplant, she can learn more specific information about the donor should she choose to. At this point, she is not certain how much she wants to know.
Thanks again, and remember that we are all fighting the good fight in our own ways.
cope
mai naem mobile
Hey Cope, I am so glad for you and your wife. What a nice story to read for a change.
Quinerly
@TenguPhule:
Actually, it’s a good show tonight. He even apologized for interrupting a guest. I’m not as hard on Matthews as some. I guess I appreciate his respect for Carter and Tip.
The Fat Kate Middleton
Thanks to all for the good wishes – believe me, I’m going to be fine. The tumor was tiny and one of the most treatable. A little tired of the vomiting and vertigo, but worth enduring for more time with spouse, children and grand babies. Ruckus: nine weeks? How awful for you. Only four for me. And Moar You Know: I’m with whoever said, essentially, ” No words.” Again – thanks, jackals.
Kristine
Healing thoughts to Mr and Mrs Cope, to add to all the others.
The GOP to date are like toddlers in tantrum mode, breaking anything they can get their stubby little hands on, with T***p the toddler-in-chief. I have so many freelancer friends who had consistent, reliable insurance for the first time in years thanks to the ACA. Some have chronic illnesses. Others have special needs children. All would be SOL with the sort of replacement the GOP wants to put in place.
hovercraft
@Seanly:
I’m so glad that we elected them back in 2008 and that they got the ACA passed, there are countless people out there like your wife who are alive thanks to them. It’s not perfect, but it’s definitely been a life saver. I’m glad you are not a widower.
MazeDancer
Most uplifting story, beautifully told, cope.
May your wife heal fully in swift and easy manner. And may your smiles be bright.
Thank you for sharing the good news.
Barbara
@Lizzy L: They can jump off whatever bridge is close by so long as it is high enough.
stinger
A jackal howl of happiness for the cope family!
Mike in Pasadena
@zhena gogolia: I agree. I hope she and others like her get a chance to tell their stories to a national audience. That we do not have healthcare available to everyone is a national disgrace. For all its flaws, the ACA was a big step in the right direction. Little wonder the Rethuglicans want to dismantle it — it has actually helped people.
J R in WV
@The Fat Kate Middleton:
Best of luck to you. We have a good friend who was written off by her local doctors, who told her to call hospice. But her husband was having none of it, and took her to the U Va Med School, this was 6 or 8 years ago now. She had a ton of alternating chemo/radiation treatments, but live to see her grand-daughter growing up and showing her Grandpa how to use a cell phone properly.
So you should expect a long, rewarding and successful life.
And as far as the Cope family, Mr and Mrs and all the friends and neighbors, congratulations on finding a match so quickly. All of us respect the gift of the donor and their family, the gift of life. Modern medicine is miraculous in nearly every way.
People who want to keep others from having access to health care are a very special kind of evil.
But blessings on all the Copes and the Fat Kate Middlleton family; and to all the B-J jackals laughing or not.
baquist
Warm hugs and best regards to Mr and Mrs Cope. Blessings on her recovery!!