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I dunno, I feel like they’ve been friends for so long that it kind of negates the creepiness. They really love each other, even though they’ve had some hard times.
Amber is just signalling that she wants this conversation to be private. As I am pretty sure that it involves You-Know-Who in the cape, I can understand her wanting to do a pre-teen style ‘fortress of inaudibility’ around her.
Actually, a niftier design would be to have eight. Two parallels on the bottom, and two parallels perpendicular to those on top, so that you could worm your way around them like an oversized hamster.
I think that Amber’s chair is facing the window, not Ethan, so she could just keep scooting until they collided.
This is what necessitates her poking her head up like an adorable prairie dog, since until then, all Ethan could see was the side of the chair slowly approaching him.
(It’s possible I’m wrong, but this will be my head canon regardless)
*looks at chair legs* Yeah, there’s nothing to tell us the orientation of Amber’s chair in this strip. I will adopt your headcanon, because Ethan just seeing the chair advance on him is much, much funnier.
And quick-thinking 3PO says to shut down all the garbage mashers, which is why they live despite being a floor below the detention level. Does anyone ever thank him? No, of course not.
Amber has been hanging out with Dina too much. She’s rubbing off on her.
…wait, why do I say that as if it is a bad thing?
Dina functions perfectly as an adult and even navigates murky social waters to the best of her ability. If Amber could allow herself to do that without telling herself that Amazi-girl should do it instead it would be a big step forward.
These chairs are located in the public lounge IIRC, so while it’d be theoretically possible, it’s probably unlikely anyone who tried actually got very far.
Ethan’s eyes are SO HUGE in this one that for a minute I thought he had Joyce-style eyes in brown instead of the beady black on white, and spent about thirty seconds staring blearily wondering why this felt wrong.
*Starts chasing*
Get back here Wade!! I need to ask you what you thought of your sequel teaser right before “Logan”! Are you going to wear your gravatar’s cowboy hat in the next film?!?
Ugh… It’s hard to decide what to type while running, especially with all those onomatopoeia.
Anyway, the grav with the hat is based on a character I RP in the Spinnerette comments(long story), it doesn’t even look like the alternate universe cowboy Deadpool in the comics. The teaser was great though, awesome on all levels. Also, I think the Firefly posters in the background were just there to cause rampant speculation.
*Realises the mob of angry readers is upon him.* Oh, fudgsicles!
Before I was all the way through the strip I caught a sight of the hair and thought it was Danny, my brain went wild in the .2 seconds it took me to realize it was actually Amber lmao
Also total side note bute itswalky.com is down? I wonder what happened there?
The only ones I remember seeing are Gender Studies (many), Intro Comp Sci (Danny, Amber), and whatever Math course Walky is in (along with Joyce, Billie, Sal, +) which Dorothy probably took as AP in HS.
PS I’m older than Willis, so when I went to college we had declared majors by this time. I have no idea what the youths do today (no kids).
The only ones undeclared are Sal, Ethan, and Joe. Which is fair, because Joe only came for the girls and neither Sal nor Ethan seem to know what they want to do (fair enough, they’re young).
The only class we’ve ever seen Ethan reference is a lab he has on Thursdays.
I’m guessing that Amber is going to ask her oldest friend whether Danny is right. Is everything good about Amazi-Girl something that she gets from Amber?
that’s how amazigirl makes her fortress of solitude, except it’s a couchfort and there’s someone else in it…
that metaphor fell apart faster than olaf the snowman in the middle of summer
As a bill proposed by Republicans, that was pretty much a given. So, the people who are already struggling under the ACA are completely fucked, some people who made do under the ACA are now struggling, and the people with enough money to not care still don’t care.
I’m hearing mutterings of ‘betrayal’ and ‘Obamacare on steroids’ from the extreme right at the moment. I don’t think that they’d be happy with anything than for publicly-guaranteed healthcare to vanish altogether.
Wouldn’t “Obamacare on steroids” be BETTER than Obamacare in providing affordable medical care? Regardless, that division issss… good? From my understanding, losing 3 “yays” (presuming the Democrat representatives finally engage whatever it is that passes for their spine) is all it takes for the bill not to pass and for the ACA to remain, right? Or are “repealing the ACA” and “enacting this one” two different motions, in which case you could be left without any healthcare benefits at all?
It’s only better if your priority is providing access to healthcare. Most of the republicans complaining are more concerned with not letting poor people get a free ride. Though a few are actually complaining that it cuts too much.
The good news is that the republicans are so divided between tearing down the ACA and not being burned at the stake by their constituents that it’s likely they’ll never pass a replacement bill without democratic support.
The bad news is that they may still unify sufficiently to repeal the ACA with no replacement ready, in hopes that democrats will have no choice but to support their replacement, just to ensure at least SOME people will be able to afford insurance.
It’s a bit early for concrete predictions though. What (if any) revisions get made to this first draft will provide a good look at exactly what level of madness we’re gonna be dealing with.
The changes are also likely delayed enough that the real damage is unlikely to be felt before the midterms at least, which is strategically good for Republicans.
Also, “Obamacare on steroids” is only the perspective of the far right and doesn’t actually mean it will be better for people.
From my earlier quick look: Subsidies are replaced by tax rebates, which apparently apply to everyone? Not going to be enough for the poor to buy in, but will save money for the wealthier who buy insurance. The mandate will go away, but insurance companies will be allowed to charge more if you let insurance lapse and then try to buy back in. Less money for the states that expanded Medicaid.
The big problem on the macro scale is that it’s likely to push healthy people out of the market and make it hard for them to get back in, which will lead to more premium increases as the risk pool shrinks, driving more people out, etc.
While I’d hope to preserve some of the limits and requirements imposed on the insurance industry, the individual mandate absolutely has to go. There’s no way to drive down the cost of something by forcing everyone to be captive customers.
Of course, any healthcare reform that doesn’t address the actual costs amounts to the captain of the Titanic going on the PA system and telling the passengers “Attention, the pool is now open! Enjoy!”
One night in a hospital costs an average of about $4300. Typical charge to the patient for ONE over-the-counter pain pill, $15. ONE pair of disposable gloves, charged to patient, $55. One disposable alcohol swab, charged to patient, $25.
Or maybe address the issue of “networks”, so that people can retain their doctors, etc, when changing insurance companies.
Wait, what? Did you typo that or something? Because that one pair of gloves, for instance, is more expensive than one BOX of gloves over here, and those boxes have, like, ONE THOUSAND gloves.
Around here the gloves cost like $14 by the carton, $19 if you want extended cuffs. That’s for the really good sterilized ones. A crappy quick disposable pair costs ….not much. Less than $20.
I don’t think Killjoy was exaggerating, when I got hit by a car* and ambulanced to the hospital, the invoice for the trip definitely listed a pair of gloves at $50 or so. This was fifteen years ago, but that detail stuck with me. I was still on my dad’s insurance at the time, so we filed a claim and the trip was covered, but iirc hospitals and/or emergency services tend to overcharge for things in hopes/expectation that neither the patient nor insurance company will say “now just hold on a goddamn minute.”
*It was a very slow moving car and I only suffered a broken toe that was congenitally deformed to begin with. Also my bike got totalled from being dragged under that poor guy’s car when he pulled over to the side of the road. Also the experience was kind of a nail in the coffin of my ability to rely on my dad, but that’s besides the point that someone definitely tried to charge us $50 for a single pair of gloves.
The individual mandate is necessary to keep insurance costs low for the people who need it. Basic supply and demand. If only people who are more likely to need big payouts from insurance get insurance — which is what would happen otherwise — then insurance rates would need to be higher because each individual plan would be more likely to cost the insurer money. That’s why you need insurance to drive a car.
I implore all of the Americans here opposed to this to call their reps and senators and tell them to vote no on this stupidity and that goes double if they’re GOP.
Considering the serpentine nightmare that the ACA has become, a good hammering out in the house and the senate might end with a decent bill. The current system has left those who hoped for relief under the ACA out in the cold. The prices have gone steadily up while coverage has dropped. I have friends that are already working to pay the fine instead of getting care since the fine is a fraction of the cost of coverage.
That wasn’t a good hammering… unless you’re using a sexual euphemism. What we ended up with was the “compromise” that the insurance industry wanted, a country full of captive customers required to buy their “service” (speaking of euphemisms) under penalty of law.
ACA was nothing more and nothing less than corporate welfare for the insurance industry.
Considering that the ACA itself was a Republican plan, unsurprising. I’m still convinced that Obama’s pushing of it instead of an actual decent plan was based on the reasoning of “well, THIS one they’ll like, right? Seeing as it was their idea.” Ah, the poor naive fool.
It was based mostly on “We’ve got some pretty conservative Democratic (and “Independent”) Senators and we need every single one of them, but we really need to do something, therefore we get what they’re willing to accept.” Thank you, Joe Lieberman and Max Baucus.
Total and complete aside: OMG you’re here! Either you haven’t posted in like forever or I’ve completely missed your posts, but I was half-afraid something had happened, what with the US being what it is now.
Perhaps, though he did say early in the process that he would have preferred a single-payer approach if starting from scratch. A “public option” was also included in the early versions, but stripped out in Senate.
True enough. My point is more that it was likely based on the expectations of his base, at best. (Though more likely, it was to look like he was compromising when he got the thing he actually wanted.)
Tell that shit to all of the people who are only ALIVE today because the ACA brought insurance within reach, or better yet, to the people who will die if the wrong parts of it get repealed without a proximate replacement.
The insurance industry did not ‘want’ to be forced to cover people who weren’t profitable. The insurance industry found that better than the alternative of being destroyed by a single payer system, though.
The ACA was bought and paid for by the insurance industry, much like the politicians that passed it without reading it. More people are watching now and fewer see it as a cure for all of the nation’s insurance issues. Fortunately, more voters will be looking to see if the “fix” is real, or just another feel good exercise. There is hope, but only if the voters read the bill (instead of relying on the media to tell them what it says) and complain to their representatives when it isn’t in the country’s best interest.
Right. If only people would complain to their representatives. Maybe by showing up at town halls (and shaming reps that refuse to hold them), or by flooding them with phone calls, or perhaps by holding protest marches all over the country, with millions of people turning out.
Also I really don’t know where you were in 2010 if you don’t think people were watching.
Yes, people complained. They complained on Facebook, on Reddit, and other social media sites. Were they watching? Yes, they watched CNN, Fox News, and any other outlet that agreed with them. They bought the line that everyone would have insurance, that healthcare would be treated as a protected right, and that the rich would be taxed to pay for it. Oh yeah, they also believed that if they liked their doctor, they could keep their doctor. What they didn’t do is to write their representative and say “Do it right, or I vote for your opponent no matter who that is”. When that happens, elected officials listen.
No, you really weren’t paying attention. People were paying attention and screaming at their Congresscritters. Unfortunately most of them were screaming about how Obamacare was going to kill grandma and demanding government stay away from their Medicare. That was the year of the Tea Party town halls.
And then an awful lot of Democrats lost their re-election campaigns because they’d supported it. Not because they hadn’t “Done it Right”, but because they’d tried to do it at all.
Public opinion has been more on the ACA’s side than the system that preceded it, but the loud folks (who were more likely to vote) absolutely were not, yes. And yes, the manner of that vocal disagreement was primarily ‘how dare the government help the poor’, in many various flavors. Those of us who preferred a single payer system were villified, and remain so.
This time around, there’ll be no real fix either. The absolute best that will happen is that the Republicans won’t be able to pull together to pass anything between the “Freedom Caucus” demanding total repeal and a handful of less insane Senators demanding that any changes not make things worse.
The Republican Party has absolutely no interest in government health care. That’s just another big government entitlement program. It’s actually worse for them if it works and is popular.
I’m still shook that Rand Paul – Rand fucking Paul, of all people – voted against the repeal. And he’s currently saying he doesn’t think their new bill will pass. YIKES.
No healthcare reform bill that accomplishes anything substantial was ever going to be perfect from the get-go or have a flawless rollout.
A bill on that scale was always going to need to be revisited – multiple times – to deal with the bad ideas, unforeseen problems, and to head off future problems made apparent after implementation.
If the GOP had cared about more than their team “winning”, we could have been working on those improvements for almost six years. Their refusal to cooperate to make it work is why many of the problems they complain about still exist. And now they want to start over from scratch. Any bill they pass that doesn’t rely heavily on what is already in place will simply run into a totally new set of issues. Though at this point, it looks like “reducing the number of Americans who can afford healthcare” will be considered a feature, not a bug.
It’s also worth noting that despite its many issues, Republican obstruction, and outright sabotage by Republican governors, the ACA still has a higher approval rating than Congress.
Very much so. Most large complex bills in the past have required technical fixes as problems arose following their implementation. A recent example was the Medicare Part D prescription drug coverage passed under Bush. Democrats opposed it, but cooperated to make it work after the fact.
In this case, Republicans have prevented any such fixes from happening for political advantage and now they’re stuck with it. They have to either fix the thing they’ve been demonizing for 6 years or kick millions off of coverage.
OMG! This, more than anything else in this comic (like failing classes and being in denial about it, having my beliefs in religion questioned, etc.), reminds me of college!!! My boyfriend and I would push the high-walled couches in the Student Union together and hang our or take a nap between classes or until my ride came. I’m pretty sure people hated us.
What is it about university spaces having weird chairs? UW Eau Claire recently remodeled one building and now it has a bean bag chair pit and benches that look like sonice the hedge hog loop-de-loo’s
Optimus Prime broke down and cried on the set of "Transformers" (2007) due to the extensive use of green screen filming. He reportedly said, "This is not why I became an actor."
“I’m just going to say it, shame on any of us who throws a trans child under the bus for thinking they’re going to get elected. That child deserves our support. Don’t worry about the pollsters calling it distractions, because we need to be the party of human dignity.”
Minnesota Star Tribune@startribune.com ⋅ 1d
Gov. Tim Walz is doubling down on trans rights — and criticizing members of his party who are retreating — at a time when the issue has become a political lightning rod nationally and back home in Minnesota.
they managed to get the arms and thighs to be different grays, which I wasn't sure they'd be able to do, the way the mold's set up
though maybe they're just producing a lot of extra thighs and/or arms in the wrong colors and throwing those away, i dunno
Minnesota Star Tribune @startribune.com ⋅ 1d
preternia @preternia.com ⋅ 1d
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Hailey Piper 
not a creepy move at all!
o.o
sliding into dms like
It’s the manic smile that sells it.
I dunno, I feel like they’ve been friends for so long that it kind of negates the creepiness. They really love each other, even though they’ve had some hard times.
Yep. Unless Ethan has some sort of claustrophobia we’ve yet to hear about, this is what friends will do.
There are enough issues going on in this tetrahedron (Ethan/Danny/Amber/AG) that I hope claustrophobia isn’t part of it.
I was thinking of this time where
C: *sitting on a couch*
T: *walks up with a bag*
C: “AUGH! WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT??”
T: “…oranges??”
Amber is just signalling that she wants this conversation to be private. As I am pretty sure that it involves You-Know-Who in the cape, I can understand her wanting to do a pre-teen style ‘fortress of inaudibility’ around her.
Now put two more on top and you have a fort.
It’s a fort NOW.
Two on top make it an impregnable love nest.
“Impregnable” ? As in “unconquerable” or..?
what you did there, I see it. ~<3
“Never cared for the word ‘impregnible,’ sounds too much like ‘unsinkable.’ ” The Doctor
The only acceptable usage of these chairs.
musical chairs exists you heathen!
Why have a fort when this is clearly a set up for a CAGE MATCH
Amber’s cashing in her Money in the Bank.
Actually, a niftier design would be to have eight. Two parallels on the bottom, and two parallels perpendicular to those on top, so that you could worm your way around them like an oversized hamster.
…. I’m overthinking things aren’t I?
Yes, but I like the design of it.
this is the cutestfunnest
It is as Willis foreshadowed. These chairs can seal you off from the world, and none will sense your presence.
“In these chairs, nobody can hear you scream.”
……. now that’s some awesome cushions.
You might as well take a nap if nobody is going to bother you.
Amber seems cheerful.
….. why does this concern me?
I had the same thought. It’s not natural.
Maybe it’s not Amber, but another personality in action.
The tags say Amber, and she has the blush on her cheeks (which means it’s not Amazi-Girl).
CURSE YOU, QUICKDRAW MASTER!
Her cheeks are rosy and the tag says Amber.
We have reached breaking point.
Maybe some of the nice things Danny said actually sunk in and made Amber feel better about herself!
I don’t see what’s so suspicious about nice happy things happening to a character! Everything will be fine and happy and definitely not on fire!
You know this is Dumbing of Age….
I’m pretty sure that was the joke, yes.
Oh damn me
Those chairs would be awesome with a blanket or two.
Yay, Amber and Ethan Super Normal Friendship Time!
Chair trapped.
Do you pull on the other chair for the last bit?
I think that Amber’s chair is facing the window, not Ethan, so she could just keep scooting until they collided.
This is what necessitates her poking her head up like an adorable prairie dog, since until then, all Ethan could see was the side of the chair slowly approaching him.
(It’s possible I’m wrong, but this will be my head canon regardless)
*looks at chair legs* Yeah, there’s nothing to tell us the orientation of Amber’s chair in this strip. I will adopt your headcanon, because Ethan just seeing the chair advance on him is much, much funnier.
Works for me.
I believe the sinking of the Titanic happened in a similar way. (ICEBERG: Hi!)
I just cackled at 3am.
THREEPIO! SHUT DOWN ALL THE GARBAGE MASHERS ON THE DETENTION LEVEL!
THREEPIO WILL YOU SHUT UP AND LISTEN TO ME!
And quick-thinking 3PO says to shut down all the garbage mashers, which is why they live despite being a floor below the detention level. Does anyone ever thank him? No, of course not.
…. does “You did great!” count as thanks? Because if so…
I suppose it does a little. I was thinking of something more concrete, like a medal, but I guess even Chewbacca doesn’t get one of those.
A medal? But Threepio’s already made of metal!
…is this the part where I flee for my punning life?
No, it’s the part where you flee for your dear pun-stealing life.
“Listen to them, they’re dying, Artoo!”
scoot near, scoot far, scoot wherever you are
I’m thinking two of those, a beach umbrella, and a blanket. And snacks. And my 3DS. And that’s my day.
yesss, that would be awesome. I wouldn’t need to get up (as everything is right there for me), and I could actually relax in private for a change.
…I guess it’s ironic I’m saying this while in bed and typing this comment by means of my 3DS.
…….. so, um, catheter or no catheter?
Oh most definitely catheter.
I thin you just soled Becky’s housing problem!
*Think
(Curse you, touchscreen keyboard.)
I must have these chairs.
I miss those chairs more than any other part of my college experience.
That’s not creepy at all.
Now go find two more to make a chair Fortress of Solitude.
Amber has mastered this subtlety game. *nods*
Just last week Girl Genius had something similar…a bunch of cobblestones being levitated off the street and then going CUBE! by magic.
*plays Roberta Flack’s “The Closer I Get To You” on the hacked Muzak*
Not by magic. By SCIENCE! (Well, mad science anyway)
“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” Arthur C. Clarke
“Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.”
— Gehm’s Corollary
All smiles! Yay!
If I had chairs like those I would definitely do that as well.
Where can I buy these chairs?
And that day the privacy cube was born!
It was hailed as a upgrade to the cubicle, and would soon be used in the workplaces and colleges of the land. All according to plan.
Docking complete. Open the air lock.
Open the pod bay doors, HAL.
I’m afraid I can’t do that, Dana. I only answer to Zhul.
(Bazinga! Two movie references in one!)
but
the chair
i can’t
Is it just me, or is Ethan absolutely adorable in the last panel? Actually, the whole strip, but especially the last panel?
Hope it works better than the cone of silence ever did.
Can’t be any worse than the cone of shame
But is it better than the cone of Mary-Jane?
The cone of mary jane is still inferior to the cone of candy cane
I do not like the cone of shame.
And you call yourself a scientist.
Amber has been hanging out with Dina too much. She’s rubbing off on her.
…wait, why do I say that as if it is a bad thing?
Dina functions perfectly as an adult and even navigates murky social waters to the best of her ability. If Amber could allow herself to do that without telling herself that Amazi-girl should do it instead it would be a big step forward.
Amber is chipper, and I am afraid
Let me congratulate you on your dramasavocity.
((Words are my servants. They will mean what I damn well want them to mean.))
This seems healthy and normal and not at all worrisome. Carry on.
I like those chairs.
These chairs really exist at the real version of this college, right? Did anyone ever pull them together like so and then do a sex in them?
These chairs are located in the public lounge IIRC, so while it’d be theoretically possible, it’s probably unlikely anyone who tried actually got very far.
Public or not, it gets late and clears out eventually.
These are college kids – there is nowhere they haven’t gotten frisky at least once.
A UV light and some Luminol will provide the proof of that.
The horrible, scarring, “don’t touch anything” proof.
Don’t drink water, because fish f@ck in it, as the old joke goes…
But fish don’t actually f@ck, mostly. Just dolphins. Who are creepy about it.
That’s a rhetorical question, right?
There is no place, public or private where college students will not at least TRY to have sex, so yes, definitely.
I don’t know but I hope to get the answer in an upcoming slipshine.
Ethan’s eyes are SO HUGE in this one that for a minute I thought he had Joyce-style eyes in brown instead of the beady black on white, and spent about thirty seconds staring blearily wondering why this felt wrong.
So, one of his earlier character designs then?
You know those old memes that had checkboxes saying things like ‘I will protect it’ for characters being adorable?
That’s me with Amber right now.
Well, that what they’re made for, right? So 2 people could get a little privacy in a public library.
Not the library, the dorm building lobby.
Ok, but how heavy are those chairs? Like, what does it take to scoot them?
They weigh a bit less than a sofa. So, not so hard so long as the floor doesn’t grip them.
It’s not hard when a lab accident gave you titanium bones.
((Quote likely not accurate, but I’m too lazy to search back.))
But it does raise the question of how many couches Billie weighs.
Her bones were rendered super-dense in a lab accident (no they weren’t)
Which makes her perfect for Ruth.
Her bones were rendered super-broken in a truck accident. (No regrets.)
*Runs away.*
I thought there was nothing left, but her neck snapped?
*Starts chasing*
Get back here Wade!! I need to ask you what you thought of your sequel teaser right before “Logan”! Are you going to wear your gravatar’s cowboy hat in the next film?!?
*Continues running.* Not… huff… actually Wade… puff… just a… fan… wheeze… *Stops.*
Ugh… It’s hard to decide what to type while running, especially with all those onomatopoeia.
Anyway, the grav with the hat is based on a character I RP in the Spinnerette comments(long story), it doesn’t even look like the alternate universe cowboy Deadpool in the comics. The teaser was great though, awesome on all levels. Also, I think the Firefly posters in the background were just there to cause rampant speculation.
*Realises the mob of angry readers is upon him.* Oh, fudgsicles!
Having cornered her prey, the Amber begins to feed.
One thing about Amber: She never leaves her intentions unclear!
So enlighten us. What are her intentions here?
She wants a discussion with Ethan and doesn’t want anyone else observing or listening.
i’m sure this’ll go well
Jaws Theme
Before I was all the way through the strip I caught a sight of the hair and thought it was Danny, my brain went wild in the .2 seconds it took me to realize it was actually Amber lmao
Also total side note bute itswalky.com is down? I wonder what happened there?
Something odd is going on, because I can go to both this site and itswalky.com, but none of the gravatars are loading.
It’s down for me too.
itswalky.com has been abducted by aliens but will soon be back with mutant super-powers.
it’s down for me, too.
My DoA gravatar has been off for a few days already.
oh wait, it’s back :O
Dum, dum dum!!!
Does Ethan ever go to class?
Well, what classes is he in?
The only ones I remember seeing are Gender Studies (many), Intro Comp Sci (Danny, Amber), and whatever Math course Walky is in (along with Joyce, Billie, Sal, +) which Dorothy probably took as AP in HS.
PS I’m older than Willis, so when I went to college we had declared majors by this time. I have no idea what the youths do today (no kids).
Exactly, I don’t even seem to know his major, and for the last few appearances at least he keeps sitting in hallways.
Walky is a telecommunications major.
The only ones undeclared are Sal, Ethan, and Joe. Which is fair, because Joe only came for the girls and neither Sal nor Ethan seem to know what they want to do (fair enough, they’re young).
The only class we’ve ever seen Ethan reference is a lab he has on Thursdays.
Or, when meeting ‘Joshua’ (hoping to take english/writing. Joyce mentioning education like her, etc)
I’m guessing that Amber is going to ask her oldest friend whether Danny is right. Is everything good about Amazi-Girl something that she gets from Amber?
I can already see it going
“What do you think about Danny ?”
“he has a nice butt”
“damn right he does”
You will be assimilated…resistance is futile!
that’s how amazigirl makes her fortress of solitude, except it’s a couchfort and there’s someone else in it…
that metaphor fell apart faster than olaf the snowman in the middle of summer
The Couchfort of Companionship!
So, I hear the Republicans finally unveiled their “replacement” for the ACA. Is it as terrible as feared and expected? How problematic is it?
The really short version is: People are going to have to pay more money and get less in return.
Of course.
As a bill proposed by Republicans, that was pretty much a given. So, the people who are already struggling under the ACA are completely fucked, some people who made do under the ACA are now struggling, and the people with enough money to not care still don’t care.
Par du course, I guess.
I’m hearing mutterings of ‘betrayal’ and ‘Obamacare on steroids’ from the extreme right at the moment. I don’t think that they’d be happy with anything than for publicly-guaranteed healthcare to vanish altogether.
Wouldn’t “Obamacare on steroids” be BETTER than Obamacare in providing affordable medical care? Regardless, that division issss… good? From my understanding, losing 3 “yays” (presuming the Democrat representatives finally engage whatever it is that passes for their spine) is all it takes for the bill not to pass and for the ACA to remain, right? Or are “repealing the ACA” and “enacting this one” two different motions, in which case you could be left without any healthcare benefits at all?
It’s only better if your priority is providing access to healthcare. Most of the republicans complaining are more concerned with not letting poor people get a free ride. Though a few are actually complaining that it cuts too much.
The good news is that the republicans are so divided between tearing down the ACA and not being burned at the stake by their constituents that it’s likely they’ll never pass a replacement bill without democratic support.
The bad news is that they may still unify sufficiently to repeal the ACA with no replacement ready, in hopes that democrats will have no choice but to support their replacement, just to ensure at least SOME people will be able to afford insurance.
It’s a bit early for concrete predictions though. What (if any) revisions get made to this first draft will provide a good look at exactly what level of madness we’re gonna be dealing with.
The changes are also likely delayed enough that the real damage is unlikely to be felt before the midterms at least, which is strategically good for Republicans.
Also, “Obamacare on steroids” is only the perspective of the far right and doesn’t actually mean it will be better for people.
From my earlier quick look: Subsidies are replaced by tax rebates, which apparently apply to everyone? Not going to be enough for the poor to buy in, but will save money for the wealthier who buy insurance. The mandate will go away, but insurance companies will be allowed to charge more if you let insurance lapse and then try to buy back in. Less money for the states that expanded Medicaid.
The big problem on the macro scale is that it’s likely to push healthy people out of the market and make it hard for them to get back in, which will lead to more premium increases as the risk pool shrinks, driving more people out, etc.
While I’d hope to preserve some of the limits and requirements imposed on the insurance industry, the individual mandate absolutely has to go. There’s no way to drive down the cost of something by forcing everyone to be captive customers.
Of course, any healthcare reform that doesn’t address the actual costs amounts to the captain of the Titanic going on the PA system and telling the passengers “Attention, the pool is now open! Enjoy!”
One night in a hospital costs an average of about $4300. Typical charge to the patient for ONE over-the-counter pain pill, $15. ONE pair of disposable gloves, charged to patient, $55. One disposable alcohol swab, charged to patient, $25.
Or maybe address the issue of “networks”, so that people can retain their doctors, etc, when changing insurance companies.
Wait, what? Did you typo that or something? Because that one pair of gloves, for instance, is more expensive than one BOX of gloves over here, and those boxes have, like, ONE THOUSAND gloves.
Please tell me that’s a typo. A whole box of those here is like a few bucks.
Was that for me or Killjoy?
Killjoy.
Around here the gloves cost like $14 by the carton, $19 if you want extended cuffs. That’s for the really good sterilized ones. A crappy quick disposable pair costs ….not much. Less than $20.
I don’t think Killjoy was exaggerating, when I got hit by a car* and ambulanced to the hospital, the invoice for the trip definitely listed a pair of gloves at $50 or so. This was fifteen years ago, but that detail stuck with me. I was still on my dad’s insurance at the time, so we filed a claim and the trip was covered, but iirc hospitals and/or emergency services tend to overcharge for things in hopes/expectation that neither the patient nor insurance company will say “now just hold on a goddamn minute.”
*It was a very slow moving car and I only suffered a broken toe that was congenitally deformed to begin with. Also my bike got totalled from being dragged under that poor guy’s car when he pulled over to the side of the road. Also the experience was kind of a nail in the coffin of my ability to rely on my dad, but that’s besides the point that someone definitely tried to charge us $50 for a single pair of gloves.
YIKES.
America, what are you doing?
…..Please don’t answer that, anybody, I don’t need to cry today.
The individual mandate is necessary to keep insurance costs low for the people who need it. Basic supply and demand. If only people who are more likely to need big payouts from insurance get insurance — which is what would happen otherwise — then insurance rates would need to be higher because each individual plan would be more likely to cost the insurer money. That’s why you need insurance to drive a car.
This.
Lots of Trumpgrets right now.
I implore all of the Americans here opposed to this to call their reps and senators and tell them to vote no on this stupidity and that goes double if they’re GOP.
Considering the serpentine nightmare that the ACA has become, a good hammering out in the house and the senate might end with a decent bill. The current system has left those who hoped for relief under the ACA out in the cold. The prices have gone steadily up while coverage has dropped. I have friends that are already working to pay the fine instead of getting care since the fine is a fraction of the cost of coverage.
A good hammering out in the House and Senate is what GAVE us the ACA!
That wasn’t a good hammering… unless you’re using a sexual euphemism. What we ended up with was the “compromise” that the insurance industry wanted, a country full of captive customers required to buy their “service” (speaking of euphemisms) under penalty of law.
ACA was nothing more and nothing less than corporate welfare for the insurance industry.
Considering that the ACA itself was a Republican plan, unsurprising. I’m still convinced that Obama’s pushing of it instead of an actual decent plan was based on the reasoning of “well, THIS one they’ll like, right? Seeing as it was their idea.” Ah, the poor naive fool.
It was based mostly on “We’ve got some pretty conservative Democratic (and “Independent”) Senators and we need every single one of them, but we really need to do something, therefore we get what they’re willing to accept.” Thank you, Joe Lieberman and Max Baucus.
Obama himself was fairly conservative, so more likely, it was the solution he liked best regardless.
Total and complete aside: OMG you’re here! Either you haven’t posted in like forever or I’ve completely missed your posts, but I was half-afraid something had happened, what with the US being what it is now.
Glad to see you’re alright (I hope).
Okay, good, I wasn’t the only one concerned about where she (is that the right pronoun? If not, my apologies) was?
Mostly, I wasn’t talking because I was pretty sure I wasn’t helping, then stopped reading entirely for a bit. Your concern is welcome, though.
And yes, She.
Well, I’m glad you’re okay. <3 I hope you feel better.
Perhaps, though he did say early in the process that he would have preferred a single-payer approach if starting from scratch. A “public option” was also included in the early versions, but stripped out in Senate.
True enough. My point is more that it was likely based on the expectations of his base, at best. (Though more likely, it was to look like he was compromising when he got the thing he actually wanted.)
It also gave millions insurance who didn’t have it before, so there’s that.
I’m not saying it’s flawless. Far from it. I just don’t trust its opponents to fix it.
Tell that shit to all of the people who are only ALIVE today because the ACA brought insurance within reach, or better yet, to the people who will die if the wrong parts of it get repealed without a proximate replacement.
The insurance industry did not ‘want’ to be forced to cover people who weren’t profitable. The insurance industry found that better than the alternative of being destroyed by a single payer system, though.
The ACA was bought and paid for by the insurance industry, much like the politicians that passed it without reading it. More people are watching now and fewer see it as a cure for all of the nation’s insurance issues. Fortunately, more voters will be looking to see if the “fix” is real, or just another feel good exercise. There is hope, but only if the voters read the bill (instead of relying on the media to tell them what it says) and complain to their representatives when it isn’t in the country’s best interest.
Right. If only people would complain to their representatives. Maybe by showing up at town halls (and shaming reps that refuse to hold them), or by flooding them with phone calls, or perhaps by holding protest marches all over the country, with millions of people turning out.
Also I really don’t know where you were in 2010 if you don’t think people were watching.
Yes, people complained. They complained on Facebook, on Reddit, and other social media sites. Were they watching? Yes, they watched CNN, Fox News, and any other outlet that agreed with them. They bought the line that everyone would have insurance, that healthcare would be treated as a protected right, and that the rich would be taxed to pay for it. Oh yeah, they also believed that if they liked their doctor, they could keep their doctor. What they didn’t do is to write their representative and say “Do it right, or I vote for your opponent no matter who that is”. When that happens, elected officials listen.
No, you really weren’t paying attention. People were paying attention and screaming at their Congresscritters. Unfortunately most of them were screaming about how Obamacare was going to kill grandma and demanding government stay away from their Medicare. That was the year of the Tea Party town halls.
And then an awful lot of Democrats lost their re-election campaigns because they’d supported it. Not because they hadn’t “Done it Right”, but because they’d tried to do it at all.
Public opinion has been more on the ACA’s side than the system that preceded it, but the loud folks (who were more likely to vote) absolutely were not, yes. And yes, the manner of that vocal disagreement was primarily ‘how dare the government help the poor’, in many various flavors. Those of us who preferred a single payer system were villified, and remain so.
Hell, I vastly preferred a single payer system, but how were you planning to get Joe Lieberman to support it?
Wasn’t going to happen.
Fucking Joe Lieberman is why we can’t have nice things.
This time around, there’ll be no real fix either. The absolute best that will happen is that the Republicans won’t be able to pull together to pass anything between the “Freedom Caucus” demanding total repeal and a handful of less insane Senators demanding that any changes not make things worse.
The Republican Party has absolutely no interest in government health care. That’s just another big government entitlement program. It’s actually worse for them if it works and is popular.
I’m still shook that Rand Paul – Rand fucking Paul, of all people – voted against the repeal. And he’s currently saying he doesn’t think their new bill will pass. YIKES.
Mind you, he voted against it because he thinks it doesn’t repeal enough of Obamacare. It’s “Obamacare Light”.
That’s the “Freedom Caucus demanding total repeal part” of their problem.
I thought he’d said at the time it shouldn’t be repealed because they had no replacement prepared?
These people are not operating in good faith.
I’m reasonably confident, to a high degree of certainty, that this isn’t the case.
No healthcare reform bill that accomplishes anything substantial was ever going to be perfect from the get-go or have a flawless rollout.
A bill on that scale was always going to need to be revisited – multiple times – to deal with the bad ideas, unforeseen problems, and to head off future problems made apparent after implementation.
If the GOP had cared about more than their team “winning”, we could have been working on those improvements for almost six years. Their refusal to cooperate to make it work is why many of the problems they complain about still exist. And now they want to start over from scratch. Any bill they pass that doesn’t rely heavily on what is already in place will simply run into a totally new set of issues. Though at this point, it looks like “reducing the number of Americans who can afford healthcare” will be considered a feature, not a bug.
It’s also worth noting that despite its many issues, Republican obstruction, and outright sabotage by Republican governors, the ACA still has a higher approval rating than Congress.
Very much so. Most large complex bills in the past have required technical fixes as problems arose following their implementation. A recent example was the Medicare Part D prescription drug coverage passed under Bush. Democrats opposed it, but cooperated to make it work after the fact.
In this case, Republicans have prevented any such fixes from happening for political advantage and now they’re stuck with it. They have to either fix the thing they’ve been demonizing for 6 years or kick millions off of coverage.
You mean, admit they were wrong or risk the death of poor people they don’t know? I await the resolution with bated breath.
Well, tweak it and claim it as their own while never admitting anything or risk a voter backlash from those that do rely on it.
A more cynical, but more difficult choice.
I want those CHAIRS!
OMG! This, more than anything else in this comic (like failing classes and being in denial about it, having my beliefs in religion questioned, etc.), reminds me of college!!! My boyfriend and I would push the high-walled couches in the Student Union together and hang our or take a nap between classes or until my ride came. I’m pretty sure people hated us.
I wanted her to be Danny. :/
Is Amber not wearing her glasses?
What is it about university spaces having weird chairs? UW Eau Claire recently remodeled one building and now it has a bean bag chair pit and benches that look like sonice the hedge hog loop-de-loo’s
It looks good in photographs?
Happy Amber makes me smile…so of course its all down hill from here
Once you’re over the hill, you pick up speed.
Evidently my birthday present this year is a friendship chairboat.
Makes me wonder how many students used a pair of these chairs as a makeout spot
My guess? A lot.