I hope you’re right, but the GOP isn’t really known for standing up to their own. Although maybe the tea party contingent will change the dynamic a bit with that. But I think the tea party contingent is the one most likely to cozy up to Trump, as they lean towards his brand of authoritarianism, I think. Whether the traditional rank and file of the GOP will stand up depends upon how their constituents pressure them. My house representative is a democrat (Hank Johnson), but both of my senators are GOP, so democrats and republicans worried about Trump can certainly put pressure on them to oppose him when necessary. But again, this comes down to the city of Atlanta (and other spots of blue in the state) vs. the rest of GA. I imagine other red states are like this (even some blue states). I just hope we haven’t gone too far off course already to fix what’s wrong.
EVERYTHING is a business opportunity here. We’re a nation of Ferengi.
From the article: “I was diagnosed in 2011, a few months after purchasing my first insurance policy. I had finally mustered up the courage to leave a violent, abusive relationship, and was newly in control of my finances. As I planned to finally escape, one of the first steps was to buy insurance, so I’d feel better about riding my bicycle on the streets of Los Angeles where I live.”
Why doesn’t Boing Boing provide health coverage to its employees?
“The public” of course being that 20-30% of the country who keeps voting R, in a context where half the country does not vote at all. When even a few more people are “activated”, suddenly crazy shit starts to happen, like (OMG) a black President passing (OMG) a modest welfare extension.
I honestly don’t know how US people can be so utterly disconnected from politics, but until you fix that, there’s little hope of pushing real progressive reforms.
I don’t think BB was supposed to be a for-profit Ltd, at least not until relatively recently.
Yeah, I’m actually really annoyed about the $45 fee for ambulances. That’s what people in non-American developed nations worry about - someone who ought to be taking an ambulance avoiding it because of the $45 cost and as a result getting worse outcomes. (Also this makes me really mad at the weak pushback against Uber since we’ve made taxis a medical service, but I’ll stop being angry about Ontario’s medical care in a thread about American medical care)
Well, I don’t know about hoping I’m right. I mean they’ll stand up to him as in do something about his flagrant “conflicts of interest”*. Republicans stand up to Trump would probably mean getting back to the business that’s important to them, like outlawing abortion, prosecuting drug offenders and creating monopolies for big businesses not owned by Trump.
* Scare quotes around “conflict of interest” because that’s probably going to be far too polite a term for what Trump is going to do.
I think I just mean in terms of their internal conflict opening up space for true opposition to the administration and the GOPs retrograde agenda.
What were the co-editors before? Freelancers? Independent contractors? According to Wikipedia, Xeni Jardin has been working for BB since 2002 and she’s listed as a Journalist on the masthead. Is it not a fair question to ask on such a pro-labor site: what were Boing Boing’s benefits? I hate the “left eating their own” trends on social media but the headline has been bugging me since yesterday.
Should I feel old if I remember when Xeni joined?
Jeez. I’ve been reading this rag for a long time.
The things she’s referring to (protections for people with preexisting conditions) has nothing to do with where she gets her insurance and everything to do with how insurance companies operate. It wouldn’t matter if she got her insurance through her employer or on the exchanges or directly from an insurer, prior to the ACA, she could have been kicked off her insurance for a “preexisting” condition and now she can’t.
Plus, the clause that employers have to provide insurance is only for companies with more than 50 employees.
She’s a partner, not an employee, isn’t she?
How many actual employees does Happy Mutants LLC have? Just Rob?
Do you expect a tiny company to provide a corporate healthcare plan for its employee?
Well, if you see my comment above, no. they legally don’t have to provide insurance if they are under a certain size.
Boing Boing Executive Board Room
Cory and Mark sit at chairs furthest from door laughing at a chart detailing Boing Boing store profit margins
Rob: You sent for me?
Cory: Come in Rob! Have a seat.
Mark: Rob, why we asked you to come in today…well…
Cory: What Mark’s trying to say, Rob, is that our readers are not happy.
Mark: OPEN THE FUCKING SAFE ALREADY! OPEN THE GOD DAMN SAFE!
Cory: Mark! Mark! Mark! Time out! Time out!
Cory hands Mark his Eierschalensollbruchstellenverursacher which soothes him
Cory: Rob, please get the safe open. I don’t care how. Just make it happen.
Rob: Yes sir. Right away sir.
For the record, Happy Mutants LLC incorporated in 2004, when:
“[Battelle] and the four editors became partners in a new entity called Happy Mutants (along with Sinclair, who is essentially a silent partner)”.
Xeni reports herself as “Founding editor” on LinkedIn.
Nobody said it wasn’t. Chill, dude.
Alternate reality:
Rob: You sent for me?
Cory: Come in Rob! Have a seat.
Mark: Rob, why we asked you to come in today…well…
Cory: What Mark’s trying to say, Rob, is that we never expected you’d do so well.
Mark: A NEVER-ENDING SAFE SAGA! THAT’S GENIUS! WHERE DO YOU FIND THEM IDEAS, ROB?!? WHERE??
Mark hugs Rob so hard, he can’t breathe
Cory: Alright Mark, that’s enough, that’s enough…
Bha ha ha ha!!!
A few years ago I spent a night in a Polish hospital and all it cost me was about USD100 including a drip of some kind, bed, electro-cardiogram, ambulance to get me there from where I collapsed. And that’s as a foreign visitor who isn’t part of their system.
They aren’t “disconnected”.
The non-voters are largely made up of three groups:
- People disenfranchised by the electoral college and gerrymandering (e.g. California Republicans).
- People disenfranchised by white supremacist violence and oppression (e.g. the non-white population of the red states)
- People who despair at the near-universal corruption of American politics.
None of those groups are doing it because they’re lazy or inattentive.
Healthcare only really became industrialised post WW2 (thanks to penicillin etc.). So while there were welfare provisions which included healthcare pre WW2 the cost were minuscule compared to the 2nd half of the 20th century. In most cases you were paying a single physician (in effect) on a retainer.
Today healthcare is the biggest growth industry in the developed world. Very different.
And it would be useful to consider the historical perspective of how we got here, the history of healthcare insurance in shifting the discussion.
My point still being that the origins of modern healthcare insurance in the US were based of socialist principles. So the American psyche is not inherently avert to such ideas.
