And the most glorious exploits do not always furnish us with the clearest discoveries of virtue or vice in men; sometimes a matter of less moment, an expression or a jest, informs us better of their characters and inclinations, than the most famous sieges, the greatest armaments, or the bloodiest battles whatsoever.
–Plutarch, The Life of Alexander the Great
On June 25, for the second time in three years, the United States Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), widely known as Obamacare.
Thirty-four Republican-led states have refused to set up state health insurance exchanges so their poor and medium-income residents can obtain affordable medical care.
In those Republican-governed states, citizens can obtain their health coverage only through subsidies given by the federal government.
A handful of words in the ACA suggested the subsidies were to go only to consumers using exchanges operated by the states. In its 6-3 ruling, the Supreme Court said those subsidies did not depend on where people live.
But three years earlier, Republican suffered another setback in their efforts to deprive their fellow Americans of access to healthcare.
Republicans expected June 28, 2012 to be their day. The day when the United States Supreme Court struck down the ACA.
It would be a day to celebrate–and to revel in the sheer ecstasy of their hatred for the country’s first black President.
The United States Supreme Court
The previous President, George W. Bush, had lied the nation into a needless and destructive war with Iraq by repeatedly claiming that:
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Saddam Hussein and Osama bin laden had teamed up to bring on 9/11;
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Saddam was trying to get a nuclear weapon; or
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Saddam already had a nuclear weapon and intended to use it against the United States.
That war cost the lives of 4,486 Americans and well over $1 trillion.
And Bush–taking a “hands-off-business” attitude–had presided over the 2008 Wall Street “meltdown.” By the time Obama took office in 2009, the unchecked greed and stupidity of wealthy businessmen threatened to bankrupt the country.
But for the American Right, these weren’t crimes. They were simply incidents to be ignored or arrogantly explained away.
Yet when President Obama sought to provide full medical coverage for all Americans, regardless of wealth, that–-for the American Right–-was a crime beyond forgiveness.
“Obamacare,” at all costs, must be discredited and destroyed.
As President Obama’s best-known achievement, its destruction by the Supreme Court would discredit the reputation of its creator. And this would arm Republicans with a potent election-time weapon for making Obama a one-term President.
Mitt Romney, the party’s presumptive nominee for President, openly boasted that the Court would overturn the Act.
Among those Right-wingers poised to celebrate on the morning of June 28 was Ohio Congresswoman Jean Schmidt.
Wearing a white dress, she stood in front of the Supreme Court waiting to hear about the healthcare ruling–-when the joyful news came:
The Court had ruled the Act was not enforceable under the interstate commerce clause of the Constitution!
Although this was in fact true–-and reported on CNN and Fox News–-it was far from the whole story.
A cell phone camera-wielding onlooker spotted Schmidt on her own cell phone.
“Yes! Yes!” Schmidt screamed. “Oh, what else? Thank God! No, they struck down the individual mandate! They took it away! Yes!”
Jean Schmidt
Her fascistic joy manifested itself in ear-splitting screeches and air punches. Her entire body rocked up and down, shuddering with the ecstasy of passion. She resembled, more than anything else, a woman caught up in the frenzy of an orgasm.
In this case, an orgasm of pure, undisguised hatred–-
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for the Affordable Healthcare Act;
- for those millions of uninsured Americans needing healthcare coverage; and
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above all, for the President himself.
It is a lust so demonic, so characteristic of the all-out, lethal hatred that Republicans aim at Obama, that words alone cannot fully describe it. It must be seen for its full, revolting quality to be felt.
But then came the bad news:
The Court had ruled that the Act was Constitutional under the power of the Congress to levy taxes. Thus, the hated individual mandate–-requiring the wealthy to buy insurance–-was legal after all.
And suddenly the Right saw its orgiastic fantasies disappear.
Later in the day, Schmidt posted a conventional press release: “I’m disappointed by the Supreme Court ruling….”
Some commentators mocked Schmidt’s moment of orgiastic hatred, comparing it to the famous scene in When Harry Met Sally: Seated in a diner, Meg Ryan’s Sally fakes an orgasm to show Billy Crystal’s Harry how easy it is to fool a man.
But there is a huge difference between Sally and Schmidt.
Sally was clearly faking to drive home a humorous point. Schmidt’s joy wasn’t faked–-it was primal, and fueled by pure hatred.
On March 6, 2012, Schmidt was defeated for re-election in the GOP primary by Brad Wenstrup.
After World War II, the United States occupied West Germany and rooted out those former Nazis who had so arrogantly and brutally ruled over the lives of millions. And America helped to set in power a government equally determined to stamp out a return to Nazism.
It remains to be seen if Americans, as a people, have the courage to do the same for themselves.
Bureaucracybuster's Blog 
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AOL: WORKING HARD TO COMMIT SUICIDE
In Bureaucracy, Business, History, Social commentary on October 18, 2017 at 12:06 amWhen the movie, You’ve Got Mail appeared in 1998, no one needed to be told that America Online (AOL) would be prominently featured.
It was through AOL that the two main characters in this romantic comedy—Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan—found offline happiness through an online romance.
The film was aptly timed to boost AOL’s popularity. By 1997, about half of all American homes with Internet access had it through AOL.
Founded in 1983, AOL began began as a short-lived venture called Control Video Corporation (or CVC). Its sole product was an online service called GameLine for the Atari 2600 video game console.
Subscribers bought a modem from the company for $50 and paid a one-time $15 setup fee.
On May 24, 1985, Quantum Computer Services, an online services company, was founded by Jim Kimsey from the remnants of Control Video.
Kimsey changed the company’s strategy, and in 1985, launched a dedicated online service.
During the early 1990s, the average subscription lasted for about 25 months and accounted for $350 in total revenue. AOL greatly expanded its customer rolls by distributing free AOL trial disks through companies like The Good Guys and Circuit City. At one point, 50% of the CDs produced worldwide had an AOL logo.
By 1997, about half of all U.S. homes with Internet access had it through AOL.
AOL’s Silicon Valley branch office
Over the next several years, AOL launched services with the a wide range of educational organizations, including:
A big draw for AOL customers was its “Instant Messenger” service. Launched in 1997, it allowed AOL members to “chat” with each other. No other online service had anything like it, and AOL refused to share the technology that made this possible.
(Eventually, an anti-monopoly lawsuit by the Justice Department forced AOL to share its “Instant Messenger” technology with its online rivals.)
By 1998, anyone with an Internet-connected computer could access AOL for free. Its revenues were now driven by ads companies eagerly paid to showcase their services or products.
In January 2000, AOL and Time Warner announced plans to merge, forming AOL Time Warner, Inc. AOL shareholders would own 55% of the new, combined company. The deal closed on January 11, 2001.
At the time, it seemed a merger made in heaven. It would supposedly allow Time Warner to digitise its content and reach out to a new online audience. And AOL would gain access to Time Warner’s cable systems, innovative broadband capability and additional content to provide to its 27 million customers.
Yet by 2002 the merger resulted in a net loss of $99 billion, the largest loss ever reported by a company. By 2009, the merger-marriage was over. Time Warner Chief Jeff Bawkes called it “the biggest mistake in corporate history.”
In June, 2017, AOL warned its customers that, starting in August, they would have to pay about $5 a month to access its services. The company was switching to a “new, improved” version called AOL Gold.
As usually happens when new software is launched, there were bugs all around in it. A complainant to the Pissed Consumer website wrote:
“If I have to pay I don’t want to see ads all over my mail, reading or when I’m writing. Send to later folder is all messed up. It seems to crash more & runs slower….
“I read an email & clicked on ‘mark unread’ when I tried to pull it back up I only got the heading but NOT the info. Trying to send email to a group of friends & being told there is a problem, but no idea what is wrong. I always used this group in my 9.8 desktop with no problems.”
And another customer wrote: “Aol gold sucks.90% of the time I get error to load account.”
A third customer: “Spent 4.5 hours waiting for aol gold to import my old pfc [Private Filing Cabinet–where emails are stored] only to find it imported the wrong version of my favorites…. Then spent 3.5 hours on a remote tech call where he repeatedly uninstalled and reinstalled gold with the same results.”
Other problems include:
Customers who call AOL’ at (888) 265-3733 and press “1” for “support on your existing AOL account” automatically get transferred to the billing department. So anyone seeking technical help needs to press “2”.
But AOL apparently doesn’t have enough techs trained in its new Gold technology. So there is usually a long wait before one of them comes on the phone. This means that if you’re calling on a cell phone, you can easily run out of battery time before your problem is resolved.
Then, in early October, AOL announced that, on December 15, it would shut down its Instant Messenger service.
The reason: Competing “chat” systems—such as texting, Gchat and Facebook—have replaced Instant Messenger as go-to forms of communication.
Nor does AOL plan to replace its Instant Messenger service.
Perhaps only the movie business can rival AOL for sheer self-destructiveness. Once “the big dog on the block,” AOL now risks the fate of dogs sent to the pound.
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