VIDEO: Elijah Cummings Blasts Gruber Over Obamacare 'Stupid And Disrespectful'

CONGRESSIONAL TARGET PRACTICE

Comments

[john]

Holy shit!!! Best holiday gift I ever got! Welcome back! Gruber is also on the board of the Mass health program too. Will post a clip in a minute.

[john]

Got to about 1:20 here:

http://m.wcvb.com/politics/obama-health-adviser-apologizes-for-glib-remarks/30144198

More later.

[DailyBail]

Hey John

Holy shit indeed. Happy Holidays, buddy.

[Cheyenne]

Try this Gruber video on for size: "The Crucifixion of Jonathan Gruber by Mike Turner"...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwja8Ff6DDo

Quoting from the description box:

Jonathan Gruber testified today before the House concerning the bait-and-switch tactic used to pass Obamacare despite the fact that the Administration knew the legislation was a flat out tax.

Gruber was a self-dealing architect of that legislation, the passage of which has netted his company millions in compensation. Gruber achieved notoriety by publicly boasting of his deception at the same time he berated Americans as stupid.

Today the chickens came home to roost for Jonathan Gruber, who got crucified during a 5-minute examination by Rep. Mike Turner.

Turner put on a clinic in witness control, posing 14 yes-no questions to the stunned MIT professor. Each time Turner didn't get a responsive answer ("yes," "no," or "I don't know") to one of his questions, he cut Gruber off at the knees and immediately planted another short truncheon into the forehead of the reeling witness.

An epic take down (perhaps even better than Alan Grayson's annihilation of financial criminals in '09-'10). The ashen faces of the panel witnesses at the conclusion of this bloodbath are not to be missed.

[john]

Speaking of Gruber and MIT...

http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2014/12/05/governor-deval-patrick-eyes-job-mit/Y1TWxAJTvUwFo9E3is3yKL/story.html

[DailyBail]

Cheyenne

What's shaking. Missed you and everyone else.

[Christina Marlowe]

Great to hear from you!!

Here is an old one:

Insurance Company Celebrates 50 Billionth Fucking Over of Customer
SEPTEMBER 27, 2012 | ISSUE 48•39 | MORE NEWS
The Onion

Cigna representatives greet the company’s 50 billionth fucked-over customer at his front door.

CANTON, OH—Overjoyed Cigna executives celebrated the health insurer’s 50 billionth fucking over of a customer Thursday, personally surprising 56-year-old spinal trauma victim Clyde Gershon with champagne, confetti, and hundreds of multicolored balloons as they denied his most recent disability claim.
The wheelchair-bound Gershon, who has required an expensive regimen of pills and physical therapy since a 2010 car crash, was greeted at his front door by cheering, party-hat-wearing members of Cigna’s senior management, who posed for pictures while presenting him with an oversized cardboard “Claim Denied!” letter explaining that he was judged fit to return to work and would lose all coverage at the end of the month.

“We did it! We’ve completely and utterly fucked over a customer for the 50 billionth time," exclaimed CEO David Cordani, drawing a vibrant round of applause as Gershon, gaunt and dejected, stared blankly off into the distance. “Ruining this many lives is an accomplishment no one ever could have dreamed of back in 1982 when Cigna was founded. And today, I can proudly say we have not only achieved it, but inflicted an incalculable amount of mental anguish along the way.”

“So congratulations, Mr. Gershon, you poor son of a bitch,” he continued, raising a flute of Dom Perigno. “On behalf of myself and the rest of our 30,600 employees, I hope you find some other way to pay for your medical care, because you are now royally fucked!”

According to sources, Cigna has been preparing to commemorate the 50-billion milestone since late April, when its “Big Board”—an electronic ticker counting the number of customers the company has savagely fucked over—passed 49,500,000,000 after the insurer postponed coverage of an unemployed father’s kidney transplant for the fourth time, forcing his family to accumulate mounds and mounds of debt to pay for dialysis.

Excitement continued to grow throughout the summer as eager employees began refusing claims for procedures the company had previously covered by saying that they “hadn’t been coded right,” which accelerated its march towards 50 billion by an additional 200,000 fucking-overs per day.

“In my 13 years helping this company prevent sick people from getting the health care they need, there has never been a more exciting—or lucrative—time to work here,” said Cigna’s executive vice president Mark Boxer, celebrating at the office with the national accounts team, which took turns swinging at a cancer-patient shaped piñata. “Under my watch, we’ve fucked so many people over that I received a 25 percent raise last year, putting my annual salary at close to $20 million dollars and really motivating me to stick it to our customers like never before.”

By the 49,975,000,000 mark, a party atmosphere reportedly began to engulf Cigna’s Bloomfield, CT headquarters. Claims processors would reportedly fuck patients over first by waiting weeks to pay their medical providers, and then by sending them the wrong amount. Gleeful telephone operators fucked over customers by openly hanging up on the ones who had called to protest being fucked over.

In the days leading up to 50,000,000,000, sources said, customers were getting a “full fucking over from every direction.”

"Once we got within striking distance of 50 [billion], we thought, wouldn't it be cool if we made the big one an event? You know, really fuck over some pitiful fuck in true theatrical fashion," CFO Ralph Nicoletti said. “And since we keep such detailed records of exactly whom we fuck over and how, it was easy to locate Mr. Gershon and really make sure we devastated him in a way that was worthy of such a momentous occasion.”

“He turned out to be the perfect choice, too, because it ends up we’ve fucked him and his family over thousands of times before,” he continued. “It’s always nice to fuck over our most loyal customers.”

Speaking to reporters on Gershon’s front yard, Nicoletti reiterated that despite reaching the long sought-after goal of 50 billion, the company was still as committed as ever to fucking more and more people over.

“We’re not going to stop fucking people over any time soon,” said Nicoletti, adding that he hoped to get to 75 billion by the holidays, which he described as truly the most fun and fulfilling time to fuck somebody over. “It just goes back to the promise we make to every one of our customers: You turn to Cigna for protection in times of ill health, and we’ll be there to totally fuck you over.”

[DailyBail]

Hi Christina

“We’re not going to stop fucking people over any time soon,” said Nicoletti, adding that he hoped to get to 75 billion by the holidays, which he described as truly the most fun and fulfilling time to fuck somebody over. “It just goes back to the promise we make to every one of our customers: You turn to Cigna for protection in times of ill health, and we’ll be there to totally fuck you over.”

[Cheyenne]

I hope you, DB, as well as everyone in the DB readership have been taking care and living well.

In April I bought a camera and have been learning how to shoot and produce videos ever since. I scored my first professional (corporate) shooting gig recently, production dates starting next month. It's about as exciting as TPS fax cover sheets (which I believe is the actual subject matter), but man cannot live on vigilantly watching kleptocrats alone--and I've certainly been doing a lot of that.

And you, my good man?

[skinflint]

Cummings kissed this mans ass a little too much. Actually could not believe he went to bat for him during this theatre of the mind.

[Christina Marlowe]

DB, Cheyenne, skinflint, john,

First, Excellent move, Cheyenne and CONGRATULATIONS!!

WELCOME ALL!!

Q:
How DOES one penetrate an ignorance that is so profound that it cannot be challenged...Ever? Sometimes I write the most basic facts and so many get hostile and argue against...facts, and deny...all facts even in the face of reality. A most curious phenomenon.

First, The most Basic historic context: 
Each corporate entity, (see Corporate PERSONHOOD) has doggedly pursued the same exact agenda for decades:

1. Lowering Corporate Tax Rates

2. Deregulation of industry

3. Privatization of public goods and assets

Success for the corporate person does translate to...what we see TODAY. HELL.
Today, the wealthiest corporations pay ZERO in taxes. AND each corporation enjoys TENS of BILLIONS of dollars in TAX REFUNDS each year. Who pays that? WE DO.

Also, ZERO in taxes means that, while these same corporations have amassed great fortunes, by use of every single American tax-payer funded resource, such as the use of infrastructure, research and development grants, US, i.e. human labor resources and countless other funding programs and benefits; 
There is so much in the way of documentation of what I write here. 
Google this, a yearly list, to begin:

Top 100 Corporate Criminals of the Decade by Russell Mokhiber

Now a Quote:
What a majority of the electorate, including supporters of corporations/capitalism fails to understand is where we really are: owned and operated by multinational corporations that hold absolutely no allegiance to any nation, Constitution or system of moral authority. Corporations who pick our leaders, buy our representatives, count our votes without oversight or confirmation, taint our food and foul our water and air, sicken our workers and benefit from their deaths. The corporations' allegiance is to only money; nothing else. They pay little or no taxes, yet they impose policy and write laws to limit our power and unleash theirs.
~Griffon Avatar

THAT is a FACT.

And HERE is just A Bit of History on Corporations:
Both Theodore and Franklin D. Roosevelt knew the disastrous
dangers of [allowing] concentrated wealth to grow unchecked;

And both consequently fought tooth and nail against it; Both fought
the constant threat of corporate dominance knowing that, once
the toe is over the threshold, easily leads to total Corporate
takeover; Corporate governance, also known as Corporatism, also
known as Fascism. The end result is the thorough and total
destruction of the Republic, along with the entire notion of a
"free" Democratic state; Which, in turn becomes another tyranny.

Of course, the J.P. Morgans of the Corporate Cabals, bitterly
opposed the likes of the Roosevelts and were positively ruthless
in their own smear campaigns to discredit and ultimately unseat
them. FDR knew them very well and I'll quote him now:
"Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government
owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the
people."

Theodore Roosevelt was a wise and prescient man; He said the
following inspiring words:
“Corporation cunning has developed
faster than the law of nation or state. Corporations have found
ways to steal long before we have found that they were
susceptible to punishment for theft. But sooner or later, unless
there is a season of readjustment, there will come a riotous,
wicked, murderous day of atonement…. These fools on Wall Street
think that they can go on forever! They can’t!”

Both Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin D. Roosevelt succeeded in
breaking the stranglehold of Corporate Monopolies, first through
Theodore's aggressive anti-monopoly and anti-trust legislation;
And later by Franklin D. Roosevelt's responsive counter to the
big banks' destruction, the Depression-era Glass-Steagal Act,
among other critical Regulatory reforms. 

They were both at least aware enough to take these critical
measures and more, all directly against the bitter opposition and the
fervent protests by the Ruling Industry tycoons of the day, who
are, incidentally, still the ruling tycoons, the main difference
being that these Tycoons have indeed purchased our entire
government.

So it is that today, everything, every single issue, every one
of OUR RIGHTS; Rights for which so many people in this country
were willing to die; Rights which were struggled for and fought
for HARD; Everything that has been fought for long and hard over
many years, Voting Rights for Black men and Women's Suffrage,
the Civil Rights movement, Worker's Rights, Unions; all of these
"basic" and "fundamental" Rights, brutally and violently opposed
by the Ruling Classes, were fought for to produce and ensure a
robust middle class; and to create and maintain a rudimentary
measure of a more Fair and Just system for all, Rich and Poor
alike.

Today, every organized effort, every life lost in pursuit of
Fairness and Justice for all, has been thoroughly erased and
intentionally destroyed. And WE the people, the hoodwinked, the
lulled, the complacent, the lazy, have let it all happen. And
now the Corporate takeover of the United States and of the
entire world is complete.

The Carter administration began and deregulated the entire transportation industry.
Reagan's policies continued this deregulation exponentially; Greenspan’s “Trickle Down” Theory!! Reaganomics!! The “New” “Service-based” Economy!!
And each administration since that old bastard Reagan, has followed,
in lock-step, the ongoing and thorough DEREGULATION of each and
every other industry; along with the ongoing Privatization of
ALL previously public sectors, lands, etc. Today, the only real
requisite for political candidates is an unshakeable agenda; A
corporate agenda of More Deregulation and Privatization.

It truly does not matter who is installed in this U.S.
government. Every Puppet-Administration--Democrat and Republican
alike--are used as a mere distraction; An intentional diversion
away from the ongoing and highly successful collaboration among
thieves to continue their goals to commit Mass Fraud and to
freely Plunder any place on earth, extracting by theft anything
of value--even if it belongs to another "sovereign" nation.
There are many institutions that have been created to advance
this goal, such as the World Bank and the IMF; When the usual
first-line measures such as bribery, extortion, sanctions, embargoes; staged rebellions, coups d'etat, assassinations; when those initial measures fail,
Wars of Aggression are often used as effective means to achieve the end
goal, which does appear to be to own and control the entire
world whilst enslaving us all.

A reality check is long overdue. Candidates of this two-party
system each have a political platform to draw votes. Both
parties run their [never-ending] campaigns on any issue that
will please their voting base, all the while blatantly
patronizing, impudently lying, telling us that 1. they CARE and,
2. they represent OUR interests. In reality, politicians do not
know of any such concept as civic duty, moral obligation, the
common good; Indeed, most politicians, if not altogether
illiterate; If not totally uneducated in all topics, most
curiously perhaps, U.S. HISTORY; Politicians, by and large, do
not even know the basics of the U.S. Constitution.

Politicians, like many people, are simply rapacious; Forever
pushing and flailing to get to the slop trough so that they too
can roll around in filthy lucre, disgracefully spoilt, grotesque
and bloated, brimming with privilege so often undeserved and
that uniquely American trait of the enormous sense of
entitlement coupled with a piggish compulsion to roll around
in their own filth mounds of filthy lucre. Hey!! Just throw a ton
of money at the poor White trash and watch the show!!
Anyway, it seems that many [politicians] are nothing if not
scabby and greasy, always on the prowl, skulking around from
town to town in cheap flimsy and ill-fitting sheep costumes.

So, are we expected to see this, um, spectacle, as a "real"
option? I mean, at this point, stop making excuses.

So, with ALL of the stark and obvious warnings over the last
four-five decades, all having been totally IGNORED by most of
the citizenry, THIS is the FINAL wake up call. If and ONLY if an
Enormous Realization, a TRUE AWAKENING, occurs, I guess that
this neo-feudal system of Peonage and debt-servitude will remain
in place; BUT, as in the Center Cannot Hold, the longer the denial
stays in place, the stronger the eventual revolt, which may
result in the worst possible scenario:
Full Scale Revolution and simultaneous Civil War.

Thanks a lot Morons, for ruining the world.

[skinflint]

Didn't the Roosevelts make their money on the opium trade. Teddy, while speaking about Wall Street gang, wore out the Indians on their own land, whilst FDR basically told everyone to turn in their gold, ie real wealth while setting up his boys. They were actually part of a long line of eugencists. Read about that when you get the chance and everything else should fall into place. Glad to see your still here.

[Christina Marlowe]

YES!! So I wrote this too:

Open Letter to Scalia:
(In reference to Ferguson, MO)
I think that what really is necessary here is an entirely different approach.
In fact, are you aware that the longer that we spend time focusing on, say, your own opinions, or any more on trifling details, the more avoidance of the enormous and worsening problem itself. 
Is this deliberate? 
Is this some sort of tactic 
used to avoid 
addressing 
this enormous systemic problem?
So, here is the problem, clearly defined:

THE PROBLEM: RACISM
Codified Racism

Sanctified Racism 

Systemic Racism
Racism in America
Racism in Government

It seems to me that the time is NOW to engage specifically and unambiguously...

Hey...By the way...Parasitic HUMP on the DOLE in this government, forever sucking off the teat of the taxpayers--that’s us--for decades on end or an entire lifetime, forever campaigning to get right back on the DOLE]

American society is sick and it has always been sick because America was founded by and for wealthy, white land-owning men who also happened to be thoroughly sadistic slave-masters and genocidal maniacs.

As Bush praised FEMA Director Brown--for his total ineptitude
and his total failure to respond to Hurricane Katrina--Bush
said, "Great Job, Brownie!!"

Hey!! Do you want a traditional and time-honored American
MINDF__CK?

Okay!! HERE:

SKIN.
REALLY?
Yes. Race is STILL one of the most crucial and fundamental parts of America;
Does that tell you any thing?
It tells me, reaffirms, that most Americans are not just simple
idiots. I now theorize that they are genetic mutations after centuries of
inbreeding; Blue bloods and Appalachian Crackers alike; Something is very wrong with them.

And by the way, in Actuality, the Civil War has never ended, it just continually morphs; Many of the Whites [in the South] continue to fly their huge Confederate flags because they are...White Supremacists.
Any way, so what if THAT Slavery was, um, in theory, "abolished;" In practice and in fact, it was not "abolished" at all and abolition was never and still is NOT accepted by a rather astonishing number of Americans.

Do you really not notice that RACISM is one of America's most defining characteristics, both historically and Economically. And it all so brutally and so seamlessly has segued straight into full peonage, debt servitude, replete with unthinkable Jim Crow laws; And STILL it wasn't enough.

Just think too: it was not at all long ago that those pesky
Confederate "types," same exact as the ones filling much of
our [ILLEGITIMATE] government right NOW, they saw fit somehow to
kill innocent people...because of skin color...for sport.

By now, I've had it, so here:

Even if White people were born this way; or born crack-addicted and
water-headed, maybe to a 6-fingered hillbilly in an abandoned
car somewhere in the Ozark mountains...

There STILL would be NO excuse for the sheer magnitude of their 
IDIOCY.

And so thank you!!

For it is both the astonishing stupidity coupled with the truly
abject ignorance that proves one of my main theories beyond any
doubt:

I have travelled far and wide around this country and around
this world and I can honestly say this with deep sincerity and
heart-felt conviction: Americans are, by far, the stupidest, most arrogant and ignorant people ever to roam this godforsaken earth.

HAA!!!
BTW, The Standard White Argument:
Well, Africans traded in slaves too; 
I was curious as to the difference, so I phoned a friend to ask;
It turns out that the difference is big:


Africans who had slaves still regarded those slaves as human beings.
White Europeans, Americans did NOT regard slaves as human beings ( e.g. African Americans are 3/5 of a person in our sacred Constitution).
BTW, I do believe that the ones pulling the strings are the original Industrial Revolution era Tycoons; A few old names: DOW [Chemical], Rockefeller, DuPont, etc., etc. and after.

So, Racism is indeed the problem itself; As to the many explicit forms of Racism, there are just as many slick and insidious forms of the same Racism. 
American Racism and the ensuing Slavery...Civil War,
"Reparations" (HEY!! I never got my 40 acres and my mule...Did you?) 
Covenants, Jim Crow...Racism/White Supremacy remains as solid as ever and is cemented in place as the very cornerstone, the very foundation of America.

Prosecuting Klansman McCulloch certainly does wholly embody and personify the average white American man. 
He and “this” is so typical and average here in America.
None [of the oppressed] are really surprised.
And [they] all know it...
YES, [THEY] DO.

So, now, I wonder out loud, specifically regarding these American Policing Agencies: 
What specific traits do they really look for in hiring new police officers?
Where do the orders, rules, etc. come from really?
Who is calling the shots really?
That's what I want to know.

And:

So, the fact that this cop, a public employee whose salary and
other perks and benefits, is paid in full by the taxpayers--that's US-- is employed to "serve and protect" the people within a particular community.

So, in this case, this officer somehow sees fit to 1. take out
his GUN from his holster; 2. To point that GUN directly at an
unarmed young man who is suspected of a petty theft, stealing,
3. And THEN this cop further sees fit to start SHOOTING his
GUN at the unarmed youth; 4. And even further, this cop sees
fit to SHOOT this unarmed young man not once, not twice, but
SIX TIMES???

SO!! How typical [of the average White American] to totally ignore SIX
GUNSHOTS by a white cop into an unarmed young BLACK man!!

Welcome to Idiot America, Home of the White Supremacist Inbreed...

[DailyBail]

Cheyenne "vigilantly watching kleptocrats"

The Kleptocrats is a good band name.

[skinflint]

http://blogs.reuters.com/breakingviews/2015/08/06/malaysia-mess-puts-goldman-sachs-in-the-hot-seat/
Well 700 mil can buy a lot of stuff.