Red State Notes

Dad made it to 95 and I’m back in the home town for a couple of weeks since some grandkids are here. Two notes:

First, I was talking to a couple of relatives with young kids who were telling me the great deal they got on their insurance. They’re on Obamacare, and they’re paying like $40/month. Both are Trump voters. I explained that Democrats are shutting down the government to keep the subsidies that make their Obamacare so cheap, but I don’t know if it made an impact.

Somewhat related to this, Josh Marshall made a good point on the shutdown on his latest podcast: Democrats just need to oppose. It kinda sorta doesn’t matter if we win, if we show that we’re fighting. I don’t know if Democrats can get a concession out of Republicans, but, frankly, I think a good outcome is no concessions, but the Republicans get rid of the filibuster and pass their “clean” CR. This would be a two-fer. First, they would demonstrate that they alone control the government. Second, they’d get rid of the filibuster so the Democrats wouldn’t have to agonize over it if we ever control the Senate.

Second, Dad got his COVID and flu shots today, and I mentioned that we got those last year in addition to DPT. When we got our diptheria, pertussis and tetanus shots, the pharmacist had a hard time pronouncing “diptheria” — presumably because she’d never heard of it. This prompted a story about the only child under his care who had died of diptheria. This three-year-old, unvaccinated, had myocarditis (weakening of the heart muscle) caused by toxins released by the infection that led to heart block (bad heart rhythms), a condition that would have been addressed by a pacemaker, technology they didn’t have back in the day. I’m guessing physicians who’ve never seen diptheria will soon have experiences they can discuss when they’re retired, old and have had a few drinks. Yet another gift from the Trump regime.