[MD]

Today I hear you have MS. You are presenting your medical condition to the American people in order to demonstate how you can relate to the sufferings of the common man.

OK, Mrs. Romney. I understand MS is a burden. I have a niece with MS. I have friends with MS. I've watched them struggle and suffer, with oftentimes less care than they deserve.

How is your care Mrs Romney? Can you easily afford the best doctors and the best medicine known to man? Do you fly off to high end clinics staffed by the rock stars of the medical profession?

Do you?

I suspect you do.

If I'm wrong, forgive me, but I would make a very high wager that I am right.

If I am right though, you have just paraded your condition in front of America for the sympathy vote effect, and that disgusts me at a level that I doubt you can comprehend.

The sneer on my face speaks volumes, doesn't it?

[careinke]

So, he should have kept secret about it, and sought the cheapest medical care he could get?

[MD]

So, he should have kept secret about it, and sought the cheapest medical care he could get?

It's all in the timing and presentation.

If you don't get that then I don't know what to say...

[vaseline2008]

How is your care Mrs Romney? Can you easily afford the best doctors and the best medicine known to man? Do you fly off to high end clinics staffed by the rock stars of the medical profession?

Since she alone can not afford to pay for development of the "cure", she needs the support of the medical science field to develop it for her. She has the purchasing power once the technology exists while the poor unfortunate do not have access to it. Michael J Fox did the same thing when he was diagnosed with Parkinson's as well. But funny thing is that Fox is Canadian and he could get "free" treatment in Canada, why did he come before the US Congress to plead for a cure? On a side note, I never once saw Ali beg for help...did he? Correct me if I am wrong please.

Remember it is only because of their own self interest that they are doing the publicity thing, not because they want to save others from MS or any other disease. If not, they would have been advocating it prior to their illness.

[Cog]

Politeness prevents me from saying what I feel about the person who started this thread and the people who think MS is funny if it happens to a rich person.

I feel sorry for you though.

[vision-master]

He don't care about poor people does he?

The guy is a total shill for the wealthy class of americans, the ones who are destroying this country.

[vaseline2008]

everyone in the United States deserves the same level of medical care. This was the greatest nation on earth. it is quickly becoming a sh#t hole.

Why? Because it is the "humanitarian" thing to do? I know for sure that you don't think all human lives are equally valuable do you? That's why we have money, you know, so that the undesirables don't keep procreating.

Please don't take it the wrong way, I'm not trying to pick on you or try to overtake your record level of posts here on PO, just wondering why you feel that way.

Human sentiment and ideology is always changing, a few hundred years ago humans were OK with slavery. Just a few decades ago humans thought that segregation of race wasn't acceptable and that women should have more rights. Do you really mean everyone from the homeless to the rich or another group of "everyone"? I'm just wondering...

[vision-master]

yeah, everyone - even yer parents when they get old......

[dinopello]

everyone in the United States deserves the same level of medical care. This was the greatest nation on earth. it is quickly becoming a sh#t hole.

Why? Because it is the "humanitarian" thing to do? I know for sure that you don't think all human lives are equally valuable do you? That's why we have money, you know, so that the undesirables don't keep procreating.

Please don't take it the wrong way, I'm not trying to pick on you or try to overtake your record level of posts here on PO, just wondering why you feel that way.

Human sentiment and ideology is always changing, a few hundred years ago humans were OK with slavery. Just a few decades ago humans thought that segregation of race wasn't acceptable and that women should have more rights. Do you really mean everyone from the homeless to the rich or another group of "everyone"? I'm just wondering...

This reminds me of a discussion I had with a friend's mother (country-club Republican) during the 2008 election. She was going on about how Obama wanted her to pay for heart surgery for homeless bums. My observation was that she wouldn't have to worry about that because if you offered a homeless bum a choice between heart surgery and a pack of cigarettes, he'd take the cigs.

If the goal is to keep undesireables from procreating then maybe we should give free contraception, right ? Republican seem to want poor people to have the most children since under their plan, poor people couldn't afford birth control.

But, pstarr's statement is one side of the extreme - that everyone deserves 'the same level'. I'd say it serves society to endeavor that everyone has an adequate level of healthcare but not necessarily the same level.

[rangerone314]

How is your care Mrs Romney? Can you easily afford the best doctors and the best medicine known to man? Do you fly off to high end clinics staffed by the rock stars of the medical profession?

But funny thing is that Fox is Canadian and he could get "free" treatment in Canada, why did he come before the US Congress to plead for a cure? On a side note, I never once saw Ali beg for help...did he? Correct me if I am wrong please.

I'm sure it had nothing to do with the fact that the US has about 10X the money & people that Canada has.

[MD]

How is your care Mrs Romney? Can you easily afford the best doctors and the best medicine known to man? Do you fly off to high end clinics staffed by the rock stars of the medical profession?

But funny thing is that Fox is Canadian and he could get "free" treatment in Canada, why did he come before the US Congress to plead for a cure? On a side note, I never once saw Ali beg for help...did he? Correct me if I am wrong please.

I'm sure it had nothing to do with the fact that the US has about 10X the money & people that Canada has.

That's another topic entirely.

[efarmer]

Saw a photo today of Americans on Wall Street looking distraught about their bets on the
world market vis a vis the dynamics of multinational corporation capitalism. This is the sh*t.
The essential deal, the goods, the core of the malfunction. When American directly or via
brokers and wizards and hedgers of the best caliber the world has ever know are locked to
their communication devices to find out how they did on the sweat and labor of people somewhere
else, or plays in minerals, materials, or finished good somewhere else, or the brilliance of software
or computer hardware somewhere else, they have consigned themselves to live the fate that is
dictated for them somewhere else. When farmers have to play the futures market to hedge against
the variability of Nature in Chicago, when people have to bet on China or Brazil to educate their
children in North America, and when if Greece goes t*ts up or not due to their belief in the welfare
state and how that impacts their retirement, the system has gone snake and tied Americans to a
basic state of expected income outside of community, individual effort, or some sort of local
collaboration, accommodations, or something in their power to compromise, set right, or prove
themselves to be a competent or decent or bad player.

The world community does not have to destroy local community, integrity, personal history of good
or bad aspects, or society. But if the whole deal is the race for quick profit, which it is.
It is going to do it every time. The American people are lashed to a wealth extraction pump
that delivers the goods at the top tier which is not national but is multinational corporations whom
deliver political candidates of choice for lower level slobs to pick amongst and expect some
sort of sensible result at a community level.

Other than that the sicknesses, weaknesses, strengths, charisma, pithy language, personal
attraction of individuals, etc. etc. are all fine. So let's use this unrelated criteria to pick
a leader of America.

This is not to say that today's politicos do not see the big picture. The difference is the
belief that you as an individual are anywhere of real importance in this big picture during
the process. Give up your vote for the best marketed entity and then cross your fingers and
legs, and of course eyes, so you can see two of them.

If you bought the right stocks and the Chinese man rides to the factory on his bike and
the price of oil and steel stays low enough, the bank that fined your ass off last month
for nothing has a Chinese toaster to offer you for signing up to online access to your
checking account. This is a fantastic consumer value, try to get tow toasters and offset
your Christmas shopping burden.

Oh yeah: Read the fine print on bank stuff. They reserve the right to reserve the right
to deny you almost every one you have. They have the money the government prints them
and hold them harmless on. You need it. You are a Type O financial blood donor.
They are Count Dracula with the Treasury basement to sleep in at night where is is dark
and anonymous and you can smell money to sleep like a baby.

If you cannot be self sustaining and good at a local level and then branch out to trade and thrive
and build alliances, the rotten core you are in is a death blow and not a road to easy living nor
retiring with grace nor a system to give to your progeny in any form whatsoever.
What this means is that you do not "get" the new paradigm that runs your nation.
So please get with the program as soon as you can.

Best,

E

[Sixstrings]

I just had an awful thought! Does Romney have spawn?.

Willard's son "Tagg" made him a "homemade chicken marsala," with asparagus on the side.

After which they probably enjoyed a nice port and Cuban cigar with their superpac attack machine billionaire backers.

http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2012/03/ro ... rsala.html

[Sixstrings]

Today I hear you have MS. You are presenting your medical condition to the American people in order to demonstate how you can relate to the sufferings of the common man.

OK, Mrs. Romney. I understand MS is a burden. I have a niece with MS. I have friends with MS. I've watched them struggle and suffer, with oftentimes less care than they deserve.

How is your care Mrs Romney?

The question you should ask her is this..

Ms. Romney..

Seeing as how you have multiple sclerosis and you're a QUARTER BILLIONAIRE, how do you feel about your husband's plans to gut medicaid and medicare? Since you say you have MS, you must know what that's like, how do you feel about your husband's plans to yank away basic services to the very sick?

Wikipedia says she was diagnosed in 1998. This is 2012.

I'd need some more information here, she doesn't look ill. MS progresses rapidly. Or it's supposed to.. is there some expensive treatment the rich can afford? If she has MS she's got my sympathy on that point but in turn you'd think her husband would care about the lowly 99.99% (Romney's in the top .01%) of Americans who aren't in his upper crust group of ultra super rich. If a working person gets MS, they're screwed and bound for a wheelchair. Whereas Ann Romney looks fantastic. I wonder what her treatment is, she looks great to have had MS for 14 years.

[Tanada]

Today I hear you have MS. You are presenting your medical condition to the American people in order to demonstate how you can relate to the sufferings of the common man.

OK, Mrs. Romney. I understand MS is a burden. I have a niece with MS. I have friends with MS. I've watched them struggle and suffer, with oftentimes less care than they deserve.

How is your care Mrs Romney?

The question you should ask her is this..

Ms. Romney..

Seeing as how you have multiple sclerosis and you're a QUARTER BILLIONAIRE, how do you feel about your husband's plans to gut medicaid and medicare? Since you say you have MS, you must know what that's like, how do you feel about your husband's plans to yank away basic services to the very sick?

Wikipedia says she was diagnosed in 1998. This is 2012.

I'd need some more information here, she doesn't look ill. MS progresses rapidly. Or it's supposed to.. is there some expensive treatment the rich can afford? If she has MS she's got my sympathy on that point but in turn you'd think her husband would care about the lowly 99.99% (Romney's in the top .01%) of Americans who aren't in his upper crust group of ultra super rich. If a working person gets MS, they're screwed and bound for a wheelchair. Whereas Ann Romney looks fantastic. I wonder what her treatment is, she looks great to have had MS for 14 years.

I know two women with MS who take a very expensive medication that stops progression of the disease. If they stop taking it then the disease will start destroying the nerve sheath again and they will be crippled in short order. The damage they accumulated before being diagnosed is still there, it just isn't getting worse.

[Roy]

America was founded on the dream that all shall be equal

I think they meant 'equality in terms of opportunity", not 'equality in outcomes'.

Although I do agree with your sentiment that this country at least since Reagan's election, has had it's tax code manipulated in such a way that it has allowed the top earners, through the power of compounding, to get vastly more wealthy, while the median American has watched his wages stagnate and his purchasing power decline rapidly due to deficit spending by both R's and D's.

I'm in that latter group, watching my employer poor mouth everybody, watching the costs for everything I need go through the roof (smaller packages, higher prices), and my purchasing power, especially that of any money I manage to save, dwindle with astonishing consistency.

The core economic policies of the country are a giant fail:

1. Deficit spend --> debase currency --> impoverish the non-wealthy
2. Fight wars against everything --> destroy liberty and Constitutional rights in the name of protecting us from whatever
3. Free trade globalism --> maximize income for ownership through labor arbitrage and offshore what were traditionally middle class jobs.


I don't give a crap about Romney or Obama. When it comes to the big three core policies of the United States government, they are no different.

Sure they're different on abortion, contraception, and other trivial social issues.

Right now those issues pale in significance when compared to what those three core policies have wrought on this country and the American people. And those polices ensure that there is no chance in 'equality of outcomes'.

Romney himself is living proof of that. Dad was a governor, went to a good school, used pop's connections to get a job with a merger/acquisition firm, plundered the acquired capital of a number of companies, and became insanely wealthy due to his daddy's connections and the exploitation of average Americans.

He is no special talent or above average intellect (have you ever heard him speak off the cuff -- the man does not have a principled bone in his body), nor does he have any redeeming virtue. He, like Santorum, Gingrich, and Obama, has never met a deficit he didn't like, and has never hesitated to use the force of law and government to implement the agenda of his campaign contributors.

The American people would rather argue about bullshit than talk about the elephant in the room, those three core policies noted above, and because of that, this train isn't going to stop and the downward trajectory for non-1%'ers is going to continue until the proverbial wall is impacted at full speed.

This election season is not filling me with hope for a bright future.

Au contraire!

[SeaGypsy]

MS progresses rapidly. Or it's supposed to.. I wonder what her treatment is, she looks great to have had MS for 14 years.

I have no idea where you got this from? With over 12 years as a professional carer, most of it in neurological conditions, I have learned more than a little about MS.

MS is founded on a breakdown of the Myelin sheath of the nervous system, both peripheral and central. It is not in a fixed pattern. There are a great many MS sufferers who are dead or approaching death within 2 years of diagnosis. There are also many who are picked up with very early signs, simple clumsiness as a teenager or young adult, has often lead to very early diagnosis.

MS is a disease where the earlier the diagnosis, the more likely staving off the disease is likely to be. With a teen diagnosis and dietary/ lifestyle support, many people are now 20+ years into living with MS, without any visible symptoms to the casual observer.

There is no funky medical treatment for MS (immuno-suppressant horrorshow side effect drugs if any). It's abstinence from alcohol, refined sugars, anything which acidifies the bloodstream. Ideally alkaline fruits (melons mainly) salads 'til you start talking rabbit and very simple proteins, any meat raw or very close to it, clean whole coldpressed oils. Plus getting it early.

(Edit to add; I am unaware of the cost of immuno-suppressant meds in the USA, they are fully subsidized in Australia. Reading Tanada's post reminded me the full subsidy for late stage Myelin breakdown, through MS or systemic scleroderma or others can be over $500 a week. A death sentence if you are un-insured or under-insured or living in a country with no proper social contract.)