ODonnellWeb ([syndicated profile] odonnellweb_feed) wrote2025-11-16 12:00 am

Lewis Ginter Christmas Lights 2025 Edition

Posted by Chris ODonnell

As members of Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens, we get to see the annual Christmas light display at no extra cost the weekend before it's opened to the public. It was light jacket last night, so certainly not "Christmas weather," and last night did nothing to get me into the Christmas spirit. With all the shit in my life and the world currently, I'm not feeling the holiday spirit at all.

ODonnellWeb ([syndicated profile] odonnellweb_feed) wrote2025-11-15 12:00 am

NPR likes me - health insurance edition

Posted by Chris ODonnell

Last week someone on Mastodon posted a link to an article on NPR.org looking for people that wanted to talk about health insurance. I happen to have some very recent history in this area so I completed the form. Earlier this week NPR reached out and did a 3-minute interview, of which one sentence ended up in the story. But it was the lead!

Yesterday NPR reached back out asking for a picture, as they are turning the Morning Edition audio story into a print story. I have not seen it online yet, but when I do, I'll add it here.

Keep pressuring your representatives. Trump has lost Marjorie Green Taylor, who was very much acolyte #1 in the cult 12 months ago. Once Trump falls MAGA goes with him. JD Fucking Vance is not going to inspire that type of loyalty.

Ironically, the Republicans have now decided that insurance companies are the problem. They are not wrong, but of course they have no interest in actually fixing the problem. They've been unwilling and unable to produce a single plan to fix healthcare since Trump promised it was days away in 2016, but now that the voters have spoken, they are producing healthcare reform over a couple of evenings of cigars and coke in the basement of the House building.

What could possibly go wrong?

Meanwhile, I watched a YouTube video last night about 10 countries where I I could live for about $1000 a month. I'm sure the video is making all kinds of assumptions that don't apply to me, but even if they are off by a lot, $2500 a month plus whatever insulin pump stuff may cost would be a very dramatic improvement in my life. It definitely bears further research.

I used to occasionally wonder what it was like to live through the fall of an empire. Did the average Roman know the empire was falling? I guess I'm going to get an answer to that the question the hard way, by living through it myself.