Reply #89: it all depends

[northernlights]

looking at my one-person poll of moi, this is my direct experience:

On going after the criminal previous administration, rendition, torture, patriot act, unitary exec, wars, etc. -- this administration gets, sadly, an F. May as well have been McCane/Failin.

On foreclosures, nice try but it just ain't cutting it. The media can whoop it up all they want. My house has been on market 1 year with huge price cut/discount -- not one person to look at it to date.

The civil action against Goldman is nice theatre. I'll believe in it if it's only step one. If, as in Toyota, it leads to criminal action on multiple fronts, against not only Goldman but the other criminals... and targets seriously senior officials, not the 30 year old whiz-kid fall guy types, it gets an A. Otherwise, it remains a dog and pony show and I'm waaaaay past that.

On health care, the jury is still out but it's not looking too good. I read the other day that the big health insurance companies are already protecting themselves from the 80% revenues directed to healthcare provision...via sneaky accounting that magically turns administrative activities into health delivery expenses. In the meantime, hospitals are protecting themselves against HIC with hiring freezes and large layoffs. Don't know exactly *who* is going to be delivering the "universal health care." Paper pushers? :wow:

On the other hand, IF I learn that ground is broken and building underway for a significant portion of the 13,500 community health centers that Bernie Sanders held out for (thank you Bernie! :patriot:), I'll give the health insurance bailout part of HIR a bye because IF those 13,500 health centers are built, and relatively soon, that will be a *major* step towards single payer plus serious job stimulus. Otherwise, HIC is another F for the administration.

Education reform is NOT helping me at ALL. In fact, it's put me on the brink of unmitigated personal disaster. Let me put it this way. I very much appreciate the $1,000 tuition reimbursement via tax refund that the administration stuffed into my left hand. However, it does nothing to fix the $20K+/2 years of grueling work investment I'm on the brink of losing from my right hand now that I have no way to finish the Med Lab Tech program I'm halfway through. Along with a significant portion of my class, our stafford loans have been cut off and we don't qualify for any grants (in my case, despite 4.0 average and repeated invites into honors society). We have no way to finish the program and can't afford to pay the loans off if we don't finish the program...classic rock meet hard place. I need $20K minimum to finish the program, between tuition and 5 months fulltime, unpaid clinical training. You do the math. $1K this year and $1K next year won't bridge that gap.

(In the meantime, the union members of the mill closing that are having all tuition, fees, books, and living stipend paid in full held a strike when A/V equipment wasn't working. Seriously. They. Went. On. Strike. They also stated that they expect if a medical instrument fails, lab tests will just have to be postponed. As in, heart attack victim can take 2 aspirin and, if still alive, call us in the morning to see how our instrument feels :crazy:. In other words, folks, this is the level of health care you can expect from the "winners" in student loan reform. :rofl:)

So far, the halfway measures always stop just short of moi. Frankly, and this is sad, but I may have done better with McCane/Failin only because I would have dropped out of school immediately...before I racked up $20K in debt, would have dumped my house immediately...right before the huge meltdown, and would have headed further into the hills to bunker down for armageddon. Instead, I'm dying the slow, torturous death of a thousand cuts.

Bottom line for my poll is that unless there is major and I mean MAJOR breakthrough for moi, my vote will go to a 3rd party, green-type candidate.