Dakota Today

***More on yes-no on 17?

Based on hits on the Yes-No post, a lot of people are apparently still looking for information on SD Initiative 17.  So am I, but more and more I am leaning toward the idea that "NO" might be the better vote.

BUT, what this initiative really indicates and what the composition its supporters and opponents show is that the SD Legislature is derilict in their duties to serve citizens rather than the doctor/chiropractor special interest/clinics or the hospital/insurance special interests because mostly those groups are lined up on opposite sides of this.  There just must be a better option to the problems with medical insurance coverage that Initiative 17.   I am not sure that my perhaps vain hope is sufficient reason to vote "No" however.

South Dakota insurance regulators and the legislature can make sure that South Dakotans get fair treatment from their health insurance suppliers even when that requires a doctor not in the  system that insures them or is the result of an emergency in the wrong town.   They can also make certain that such necessities do not require extra payments.  Legislators and the legislative research counsel should be able to devise a uniform billing system that works for all groups and all providers so that this protection does not generate billing nightmares and extra charges.

Your ideas and comments welcome.  Legislators need to hear about patient and insured interests as well as those of the special corporate and medical interests.

[[Following added October 28, 2014:  In the Mitchell Daily Republic Tuesday October 28, 2014 on page A5 (the Opinion page), Dr. Tom Dean, M.D. of Wessington springs wrote:  I would urge a "NO" vote on Measure 17.

This is truly a "wolf in sheep's clothing". Why did I say that?  The ads about freedom of choice are naturally appealing, but there is a great deal the ads do not tell you.

First, passage of this measure would severely restrict the ability of insurance companies to negotiate provider fees on behalf of their subscribers.  It would therefore increase insurance premiums and health care costs.

Second, the proposal has been considered by the SD legislature on several occasions, and on each ocassion, they have rejected it.  If it was simply a matter of freedom of choice for consumers, it is not likely the legislature would have taken such action.

Finally, the public needs to know who is in fact promoting this proposal. The sponsors are the for profit specialty hospitals-- most of which are owned by physicians who refer to them -- and various medical specialists whose high fees are being squeezed as the pressure for health care cost control becomes increasingly intense.

In summary, I would ask "Is it appropriate for the state to be dictating who an insurance company has to do business with?"  In my view, it is not, and I would urge a "NO" vote on 17.

I find the doctors's letter interesting with several good points worth considering  I am however not at all convinced of the reasons for the legislature reticence of the issue.  I think it has more to do with political gutlessness and fear of upsetting special interests on all sides of this issue.  As I indicated above, I think there are better ways to do what needs to be done.

***Stay tuned, I may waffle around a bit more on this in the next few days--Doug Wiken.

*** The harder it is to vote, the more important it is to vote

Bill Moyers had a program on last night with two voter rights activists.  The Supreme Courts unprecedented (well in recent years anyway) attack on voter rights and the ALEC influenced legislators push for strict voter ID laws are a recent onslaught against the last affordable right to withstand the excesses in advertising consequent to Citizens v. United money is speech decision.

Here is a link to Bill Moyers site statement:   The Supreme Court eviscerates Voting Rights.

Following is the link to the transcript of the show:  The fight and the right to Vote.

One of the points made by the voter rights advocates was that everybody is equal when it comes to the right to vote.  And, this should remain an inviolable right as it is one of the very few tools left for the unrich and the minorities and the women to make their voice known with equal power.  Even if you don't have the Koch brother's money, you can vote and your vote in that election will be worth as much as any other vote.

The attacks on free voting through the tactic of requiring stringent ID requirements were driven by the Republican thugs who if they can't win a fair election try to design election requirements to make it harder or impossible for their opponents to vote.  They look at voting demographics and try to make it harder for the poor, the female, the young, and the otherwise disadvantaged to use their right to vote.  Their voter ID requirements have little to do with concern for honest elections and instead have everything to do with maintaining control over power and the economy...and you.

Think about that and realize that the harder they make it for you to vote, the much more important it is that you stay informed and keep exercising your right to vote.  Those trying to prevent your voting are giving tacit admission of how important it really is for you to vote.  I have little patience with those who whine they can't get to a voting place, or it is just too inconvenient, or it doesn't matter anyway.  If you vote no matter what are the roadblocks, you send a message loud and clear to both your friends and enemies that you and your perspectives are worth considering.  Sit on your ass and bitch at the TV screen or the internet and you will get no respect and no consideration from the political system.

Know your friends and enemies in the political system and get out and vote.

***Stay tuned for more pictures and more damn politics--- Doug Wiken

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** Nation Magazine discovers Mike Rounds...results not good

A commenter or two over at Madville Times discovered a Nation Magazine story on Mike Rounds titled "Revealed: A New Ethics Scandal Involving the GOP'S South Dakota Senate Candidate."  Rancid Rounds Reeks in the article.  His cohorts don't smell all that good either.

Read it here: Nation Magazine--Revealed--A new ethics scandal, etc.

South Dakota Plutocrats and Kleptocrats do not serve average South Dakotans well.  Rounds certainly will not be a good representative of real South Dakota values if he sneaks into Washington under a dark cloud of allegations and facts.

***Stay tuned for more when I am just a bit more awake--- Doug Wiken

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***Would you and Rounds really vote alike?

Mike Rounds latest round of TV deception ads states something like, "Mike Rounds would vote like you would vote."  Really?

1.  Would YOU really vote to slash taxes on those making $millions per year?

2.  Would YOU really vote to put insurance companies in charge of Medicare and Medicaid and increase Insurance Company profits by $billions.

3.  Would YOU really vote to maintain multi-national corporations to set wages so low their employess are on welfare and further their ability to stifle employee speech and spend unlimited amounts buying elections?

4.  Would YOU really vote to destroy the federal agency that aids education and students from k-12 through post graduate work?

5.  Would YOU really vote to force college students to pay higher loan rates and give shysters free range to exploit them?

6.  Would YOU really vote to balance the budget on the backs of the poor and the lower middle class?

7.  Would YOU really vote to support a foreign pipeline designed to increase your gasoline, diesel, and fuel oil prices by 10 to 20 cents per gallon?

So, do you really think Mike Rounds would vote like you with his superiority  values?

*** Stay tuned... election day is close.  Your decision can make or break you.-- Doug Wiken

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***Stop Ebola from further entrance to US. No good excuses.

Carter and Reagan administrations gave us the same kind of assurances about HIV-AIDS that  we are getting from the Obama administration concerning Ebola. Einstein wrote something like, "Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results is insanity." The public statements and behavior of the federal government now seems to be engaging in insanity.

We have big business expedience and self-interest in maintaining trade and a weird kind of political correctness both threatening US legal residents for no good reason. It is possible to support quarantines and tighter borders without being anti-Black or anti-African. Blacks, whites, reds, browns, yellow are all threatened by Ebola or the failure to prevent its widespread dispersal in the US.

It does not require mindless panic to be concerned about the devastating potential of Ebola and the failure to prevent it in the US. One or two victims in the US is one or two too many victims. There is no good excuse for innocent US citizens of any party or race getting Ebola here. Labeling rational concern about the threat of Ebola as mindless panic is dangerous deception.  Labeling desire for quarantine as prejudice against Africa and Africans is also dangerous deception.  Both are irrespnsible political posturing.

There are also no good excuses for not doing as much as possible to stop the epidemic in Africa.  Republican politicos whining about the Obama administration not doing enough are most often those also opposing funding to control Ebola in Africa.

Ebola spread in the US even if just a dozen cases will damage the economy, Christmas sales, reduce taxes and increase government spending, and waste millions of dollars better put into border control and quarantine of travelers.

Even one single more Ebola case in the US is a sign of failure by our government.  There are no good excuses.

Here is some info on how  Ebola and your immune system can destroy your body.

Here is an NPR link which might provide useful information  NPR Shots Blog.

 

*** Stay tuned...and wash you hands--- Doug Wiken

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***Are South Dakota Republicans all very, very rich?

A few elections ago, campaign workers here from out of state were amazed to find some of the poorest South Dakotans living in the most run-down inadequate housing proudly REPUBLICAN.   They could not understand why when the GOP almost always takes actual action (rather than what they say) to make life harder and harder for the poorest or most unfortunate...whichever comes first.

Below is a link indicating the conservative think tank misinformation and deception coupled with Fox Noise might also be factors.

Misinformed USA: Why average Americans often vote Republican.

You may want to ignore practically every ad on this site however.

Average South Dakotans who continue to vote Republican after that party tries to screw them for the benefit of the rich and polluting are like a dog that enjoys repeated beatings.

***Stay tuned for more on the South Dakota circus parade of fools-- Doug Wiken

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***Mike Rounds forgets again?

My father-in-law, or was it my MIL talking about him?, used to talk about "selective memory".   This seems to be one of Mike Rounds character flaws.  Or perhaps he has some weird form of Alzheimer's disease which causes him to instantly forget his unsavory political behavior.    Nearly every time Mike Rounds makes some attack on his foes claiming they are lying about him, in a few days somebody drops another political bomb on his campaign and shows he is lying or has a mental problem.

Denise Ross in a column in the Mitchell Daily Republic puts another nail in Mike Rounds partisan political coffin.   Link--- Denise Rose on Chinese Investor and Rounds.

The link might work for only a few days.  It is in the snail mail version of the paper.  It keeps gettting thinner and thinner, but often worth subscribing to even if its editorial page is often a manure spreader for wingnut right mythology.

*** Stay tuned, these are interesting days--- Doug Wiken

***Rancid Rounds is BSing SD Midday

Rounds is claiming the XL pipeline will reduce pollution and reduce fuel prices.  These are both outright lies.  Trans-Canada has told Bloomberg News the primary purpose of the XL pipeline is to INCREASE fuel prices in the midwest by 10 to 20 cents per gallon.  Tar sands oil requires a lot of energy just to get it into a form for pipeline transportation.  Rounds ignores the potential of the pipeline to pollute SD water resources.  The XL pipeline is designed to move oil to China.  If any long-term jobs at all result from it, they will be along the Texas coast and not in South Dakota.

Rounds talks fast, and gets out more distortions and lies per minute than any other current candidate.  He is now BSing about the EB-5 program claiming dead Benda made changes to a Rounds document.  Dead Benda is not the only possible source for information.  Rounds is now claiming EB-5 was good for SD.

If you want government to work for you instead of schemers, scam artists and polluters, you have only Democrats to chose from.  Rick Weiland, Susan Wismer, and Democratic legislators are the only candidates of a major party who offer any promise of clean open government at the federal and state levels that will work for you and your family and not pander to the very, very rich special interests.

***Stay tuned...only a few days until the election--- Doug Wiken

 

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***Showing up is 80% of Success

Woody Allen said something like "Just showing up is half of life."  It has been turned into something like "Showing up is 80% of Success."

Candidate Rick Weiland is already showing up for work  all over South Dakota and not just once in a lifetime, but twice in one Democratic campaign.  Republican robber-baron Rounds is hiding under his gold-plated rock and dodging every debate.  If showing up is really part of success, Mike Rounds is a huge failure.

Rounds slick ads are just a little too slick to be honest.  His statements about Joop and EB-5 greencards for money are also just a little too slick.  Rounds is just a little too slick to even be a politician let alone our US Senator.  Compare Rounds to Abourezk, Johnson and McGovern and even Jim Abdnor and Larry Pressler, Rounds looks like a midget in a land of giants.

*** Stay tuned, the times are a changing, but so are the polls--- Doug Wiken

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*** Thune absurdity in Mitchell Daily Republic

US Senator John Thune, R. SD spoke in Mitchell, SD to local Kiwanis Club.  Headline is "We have to get Washington going again, THUNE: SENATE MUST COOPERATE."

Of course, party hack Thune's big idea to do that is ..surprise...elect more Republicans.  This is like a man who just shot up a kindergarten class saying, "We need to stop the senseless shooting by getting more senseless shooters around here."

Thune has been an oh so willing partner in the retrograde obstructionism that Republicans in concert with TEA Party loons have used to roadblock good nominations, sensible economic proposals, Affordable Care and replace it with tax cuts for the very, very rich and other pandering to the Koch side of more economic privilege for the very, very rich.

Thune is the epitome of GOP hypocrisy and zombie economic mythology.  He blathers on about programs that have never worked and never will.  He is in favor of increasing the already grotesque spread between the top 1% and the rest of us.

Thune and Rounds are also supporting the XL pipeline.  Bloomberg news has reported Trans-Canada saying the most important reason for the pipeline is to get the glut of crude oil out of the midwest so that gasoline and other fuel prices can be increased by 10 to 20 cents per gallon in this part of the country.  Chinese investors are part of the tar=sands oil conglomerates.  The XL pipeline will move oil to the Texas Gulf coast for export to China.

The proported tax benefits county commissioners and schools are drooling over have been grossly exaggerated with pipeline in eastern SD and are likely exaggerated for the XL pipeline.   Apparently SD state school aid to school districts will be reduced by an amount equal to the increased pipeline tax share.  That means zero net impact for schools.  Couple that with likely increases in electric base rates because of the huge power demands of the pumping stations and the gasoline price increases and we residents of the midwest will actually be subsidizing a Canadian company and its US fossil fuel industry cohorts.

Thune is a deceiver is a deceiver useless to those who are not filthy rich.  Speaking of which, an auto magazine had Ford Motor company production and pay for their chief executive.  Anybody buying a Ford vehicle kicks in $10 to that CEO who is paid over $23 million per year.

Thune is friends of guys like that and the polluters in the fossil fuel industries.  He is part of the threat to your health, economic well-being, and the future of our planet as a place habitable by humans.  His blather about getting Washington moving agains is complete BS.  If the GOP gets control, Washington might be moving, but completely in the wrong direction.

*** Stay tuned and don't be fooled by the GOP pretty boy--- Doug Wiken

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