As expected, the usual attention/relevance seekers are adding their unsolicited voices to the conversation over the murder of UnitedHealth CEO Brian Thompson by our latest social media-anointed accused hero Luigi Mangione.

Politicians and media pundits just have to ingratiate us with their informed opinions that almost always start of with “Murder is bad, BUT….” and then go on to find twisted ways to justify a murder of someone who may do something they don’t like. Even while, in this case, the murder victim had zero to do with whatever the accused issues are/were.

Over the years, circumstances brought me to opine on several instances I titled “When Bad Things Happen To….” We’re usually talking about those who arrogantly refer to Americans as “average” or “ordinary people” because we all know they consider themselves so more extraordinary than us.

When people commit crime, the media gleefully splashes the accused’ face all over their broadcasts. Yet when a media person is busted, we’re told we must forgive and eventually forget it ever happened so that person can continue to make a living.

If anyone attacked a prompter-reader for their hypocrisy, media collective would be outraged if it was said that attack was bad, BUT….

When our politicians target a certain segment of the population, they demand the “letter of the law” be upheld. When they screw up, they demand we forgive them and eventually forget it ever happened so they can raise money for their reelection.

If anyone attacked a politician for an offence (and we’re talking sexual indiscretions to bribery), all politicians would be outraged if it was said that attack was bad, BUT….

When Obamacare was passed, every American was seemingly forced into acquiring government-run healthcare that imposed much higher premiums and deductibles. Every business that employed more than 50 people were required to cover their employees. Let’s not forget, Capitol Hill politicians found a way to exempt themselves by saying each office was a business that employed less than 50 people and, lo and behold, an exclusive health care program was created just for them that was far cheaper and had better coverage than the “Affordable Care Act” scam that was mandatory for everyone else.

If anyone attacked a politician for the harsh health care increase and resulting financial hardship, all politicians would be outraged if it was said that attack was bad, BUT….

When the COVID-19 pandemic initially hit, politicians nationwide shut down their states and millions of Americans essentially lost their means of income.

However, one of the first thing politicians on Capitol Hill did was pass the “Take Responsibility for Workers and Families Act” that essentially assured no federal employee would miss a paycheck and, coincidently, that law was seemingly replicated in state houses nationwide so most public servants would be paid uninterrupted.

We all know how some shutdown governors (most of whom never missed receiving a taxpayer-funded paycheck) blew off the very mandates they imposed on their populations and arrogantly found reasons to justify and flaunt their privilege.

If anyone attacked a governor for the loss of a business or job and all the negative fallout that comes with sudden unemployment, all politicians would be outraged if it was said that attack was bad, BUT….

We’ve been beat over the head about the only real instance of violence at a conservative rally, “January 6th” by Democrats and their media. We’ve seen the pictures of Capitol Hill politicians cowering-in-place at the horror mass violence brings.

However these are the same politicians who, in some cases, justified and excused the mass liberal Democrat mayhem that held the nation hostage during the Summer of 2020 where mostly black businesses were burned and looted, public and private businesses were vandalized, too many people were injured or killed and police officers all over the country were wounded and/or assassinated.

The horror experienced by Americans was “mostly peaceful” and not the best optics, BUT….

Thanks to the American people, President-Elect Donald J. Trump’s reelection has reduced the Democrat Party and their fake news media accomplices into a temporary state of irrelevance, thus the musings of Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Governor Chris Murphy, Michael Moore and many others on social media have been met with the appropriate outrage.

“Violence is never the answer, BUT people can be pushed only so far,” Warren told HuffPost.

This mental illness is nothing new to Democrats; from the civil war they waged to keep slaves to the mass murder of innocent babies in the womb. Their adherence to the “by any means necessary” mindset gives them license to impose whatever violence they deem appropriate. That is, until it happens to them and in most cases, by them.

Then violence is never the answer.

No ands, ifs, or BUTs….

At no point in modern American history can anyone remember seeing a president wander around after an official White House event with no one to talk to, people walking by him, and even ignoring him.

Well, add yet another historic first to the Joe Biden presidency….

Joe Biden is now the most unpopular person in virtually any room he enters. It’s the president United States in his own house, shunned. Nobody would talk to him. So Biden wandered off, looking vacant as a crowd formed around a former president, Barack Obama, who was obviously deeply grateful for the attention. And then it got worse. Biden tried to horn in on the conversation swirling around Obama. Everyone involved in that conversation, including Kamala Harris, who supposedly works for Biden, ignored Biden completely. Biden desperately tried to get Obama’s attention. He puts his hand on Obama’s shoulder. He even calls him “Barack” like they’re friends, but Obama blows him off. He acts like Biden is not even there.
— Tucker Carlson, 4/5/22

Joe Biden IS there because almost everyone in that room, in some way, supported him. Now they all want to act like he’s not their problem.

When you’re walking around aimlessly and alone at an event in your own “home”, that kinda’ says it all.

On the first of the month, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser held an event at Freedom Plaza to celebrate the start of Obamacare’s annual open enrollment period. She appeared with Mila Kofman, head of the District’s health insurance exchange, D.C. Health Link. In conjunction with the event, the mayor issued a proclamation declaring the open enrollment period “Get Covered, Stay Covered” months, and noting that “residents should visit [D.C. Health Link’s website] to shop for and compare health insurance.”

But in encouraging others to “get covered,” and promoting the D.C. Health Link site, Bowser omitted one key detail: She does not buy the policies that D.C. Health Link sells. My recent Freedom of Information Act request confirmed that Bowser, like most of her D.C. Council colleagues, received taxpayer-funded insurance subsidies to purchase their coverage through the District government, rather than through D.C. Health Link. Thus, DC spent nearly half a million in taxpayer funds because the mayor and council won’t be bothered to enroll in Obamacare.
— Christopher Jacobs, 12/7/18

In 2008, Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton engaged in uncomfortable political gymnastics, criticizing each other for parts of a health care plan that required people to obtain coverage, whether they could afford it or not, under threat of fine.

It’s reality today in the District.

A taxpayer who fails to pay the District of Columbia shared responsibility payment by §a7-5103 shall be subject to all collection, enforcement, and administrative provisions applicable to unpaid taxes or fees, as provided in Chapter I 8, Chapter 41, Chapter 42, Chapter 43, and Chapter 44 of this title.
— D.C. ACT 22-442, 9/5/18

It’s clear despite the generous compensation for their public service, health care premiums and deductibles are out of reach for the mayor of DC and the council, so it’s imperative someone else pick up their “individual responsibility requirement” tabs.

Which is again illustrative of something said here back in 2009: “Liberals create policies so wonderful, they have to force you to use them.” I’d include an addendum, “… and make you pay for those who created the mess you must live with.”

The head of the District’s health insurance exchange—which recommended creating a DC mandate following the removal of the federal tax penalty—doesn’t buy exchange coverage herself. As I previously noted, many exchange heads (and Obamacare supporters) refuse to buy the coverage they promote, including the head of the district’s exchange, Mila Kofman. I asked Kofman whether she, and other exchange employees, purchased exchange coverage. She claimed that she and her colleagues could not purchase exchange policies, because they would lose their employer subsidy in the process.

Only later did I learn that Kofman was paid at the rate of more than $217,000 in late 2016. The idea that a bureaucrat making several multiples of my income would cry poverty, and claim she needed taxpayers to fund her health coverage in addition to her $200,000-plus salary, offended me then, and offends me now.
— Christopher Jacobs, 7/3/18

In 1994, Republican Congressmen Newt Gingrich and Dick Armey created a campaign platform and it’s first tenant speaks a lot of their knowledge of Capitol Hill inside baseball and culture of entitlement, as it read:

FIRST, require all laws that apply to the rest of the country also apply equally to the Congress
— The Republican “Contract with America”

Obamacare will probably go down as the most glaring justification for the Contract’s FIRST priority as federal politicians and their staffs created a nightmare for most of the American people; a nightmare those same politicians and staffers created ways around that only benefited them. In some cases, the American taxpayer was given the honor of paying for those politicians, their staffs AND their families. It could be argued if those who created Obamacare had to actually pay for it out of their own pockets, it NEVER would’ve been passed as it was.

It’s not fair that so many of those in the District of Columbia are not making decent money working for the federal government or the numerous contractors, think tanks, nonprofits, etc. that leech off their convenient proximity to the Capitol. Too many are poor and they voted Bowser and the DC council back in because of the same old promises; promises never delivered.

But Mayor Bowser, the City Council and selected staff (and their families) are well taken care of and their constituents get to pay for it.

His recent no-vote to repeal ObamaCare is the best illustration as to how many Republicans made repeated promises they apparently had no intention of keeping.

McCain has routinely sought out any media outlet that allowed him to speak out against Republicans, conservative values, he’s voted against policies he campaigned on to return him to the United States Senate, term after term, and spends too much time siding with Democrats than his own compatriots.

According to a Senate Democrat, McCain heard from two longtime friends pleading with him to oppose McConnell: Joseph I. Lieberman and Joe Biden. The former senator from Connecticut was long one of McCain’s best friends, forming the heralded “Three Amigos” along with Lindsey Graham.

Biden, the former vice president who often clashed in a collegial way with McCain on foreign policy matters, had a more emotional discussion with McCain. The Arizonan’s brain cancer is the same diagnosis that Biden’s son, Beau, received in 2013; he died two years later.
— Washington Post, 7/30/17

His latest vote against repealing ObamaCare should have come as no surprise. Making it as dramatic as he did should be what he’s remembered for: lying to get elected and serving HIS best interests; NOT the best interests of his state and the nation.

The following should jar memories on where we’ve been led; a place Democrats don’t want the American people to go.

Democrats are playing mostly to the uninformed or those too young to know what life in the United States was like before ObamaCare was inflicted on the American people.

How many Americans are truly uninsured? The number the Obama administration and Democrats have used for more than a year now ranges between 40 million and 46 million—at the upper end, that would be somewhere between 1 in 6 and 1 in 7 Americans.
— US News & World Report, 8/20/09

Why, instead of tailoring a bill to help that 40-46 million, did the whole health care system in the United States have to be changed to forcibly affect all? People who were perfectly happy with their coverage were forced to buy plans at a higher price, not to mention be facing unrealistic deductibles. Being able to purchase plans across state lines at more competitive prices was never considered in the Democrats’ ACA.

During the 2008 Democrat presidential primary, candidate Hillary Clinton pointed out that forcing parents to pick up the tab on their older children’s health care was an unreasonable burden. Parents paying for their children’s health care up to age 26 became a primary selling point. Too bad parents were never asked if this is something THEY even wanted to absorb.

Also during that debate, candidate Barack Obama also said it was unfair to “mandate” people buy government health care and it was even more unfair to fine them if they couldn’t afford it. Passage of the ACA meant people were mandated to buy health care if they wanted it or not and would be fined if they did not comply.

I will sign a universal health care bill into law by the end of my first term as president that will cover every American and cut the cost of a typical family’s premium by up to $2,500 a year.
— Senator Barack Obama, 2007

Deductibles rose to the point that people couldn’t afford to use the health care they were forced to buy.

Prior to passage of the ACA, employees enjoyed a 40-hour work week. After, some business employers reduced the hours their employees down to 29 so they didn’t have to pick up the tab for their employees at the inflated government cost. Businesses that had more than 50 employees were required to pay for their employees’ health care and that forced many employers to not expand their companies as some may have wanted.

Many Americans now have to work two or more jobs to make the equivalent of what they earned before passage of the ACA.

The elected in the House, Senate, Supreme Court, their staff and families exempted themselves from the very law they imposed on the rest of us.

And since passage up to now, Democrats are complaining that Republicans don’t have fixes for a law they rammed down the throats of the American people and are now poised to dismantle their flawed experiment; an experiment millions will celebrate once ended.

One of the many reasons Donald Trump was elected President was his promise to end the Democrat nightmare that was and still is the “Affordable Care Act”.

The People will soon see how much money they’ll be saving and just who made their lives miserable since 2010.

Imagine the ego it took to write “Obamacare Critics Still Tell Just One Side of the Jobs Story” while plotting to deceive and destroy the health care coverage of millions of individuals and families.

In listening to “Health Economist” Jonathan Gruber’s presentation of the “agenda” at the University of Pennsylvania, the arrogance is quite disturbing and the question that most comes to mind is… “Who elected YOU?”

“What’s been great about this process is that it’s been a fairly intellectually honest process,” said Gruber.

Turns out it was a good day to check in with Gruber. Of course, lined up on the other side, we have the entreaties of millions of misinformed, Bible-banging suckers, so there’s that.
— A Brief Interlude With Expert Opinion, Esquire Magazine, 9/26/13

This progressive educator (and his family) is probably having a very bad last few days and deservedly so. The truth always comes out and there can be a reckoning.

B&R Flashback: ObamaCare: DEFUND, Not Repeal

This must be done. What’s sad is that Gruber has more balls than some of the Republicans now in charge.

After lunch, Laura and I caught him in the parking lot and asked him (as a matter of proper messaging) if he could get out front and not continue to say “repeal” but “defund” because, if you really want to be accurate, Mitt Romney was the only person who could have repealed it.

Republicans are now going around the country talking about “repeal” but let’s be real: if a Republican House and Senate sent a bill repealing the ACA to Barack Obama, we all know he’d veto it and blame everyone in the room for days.

As I told the candidate, we Republicans should run on, win, and then send a bill to Obama with no money going to ObamaCare. We wonder if the president would be so eager to shut down the government over a piece of legislation that helped put his opposition into the majority? Public opinion may not be on his side, especially when all the little post-midterm ObamaCare goodies kick in.

Also, if the GOP runs on “repealing” ObamaCare and can’t do it (while knowing they couldn’t before the election), aren’t we making a promise we can’t keep and doesn’t that make us no better than Democrats?

Either way, we’re not falling for the “repeal” ObamaCare trap recited by the unthinking.

“Defund” is the ONLY way to go.

UPDATE: That Senate candidate was Ed Gillespie. Not to just single him out, Mark Levin repeated the incorrect “repeal” line last night (11/10/14) as well.