My point being that all countries with universal healthcare systems face these challenges to a greater or lesser extent. I know the current administration doesn't exactly inspire confidence but you can do it! I believe in you USA! The idea that the greatest superpower in the history of the world cant confront the horrors of regional diversity in order to provide healthcare to its citizens is ludicrous.
Yes. Also all other countries are completely homogeneous with zero regional diversity. It is known.
The US is very large and very diverse (meaning geopolitically -- population distribution, regional income, infrastructure, etc). The policies that work in New York are different than the policies that work in New Mexico. I don't think universal healthcare will work at the federal level in the US, and I base that on my experiences with TriCare and the VA system. I think that most, if not all, of the patients operating in either or both of those federal healthcare systems will back me up on that.
Put simply -- this is not a conversation worth having in the US until the federal government can demonstrate competency with the VA. Until that happens, universal healthcare is delusional.
I've heard very little good about the VA. I looked into working for them once but turns out I'm a filthy foreigner. Are you in favor of dissolving it completely?
I've worked in two different countries with universal healthcare systems. Neither of them were perfect but both of them had significant advantages over the American system. This is particularly true in the provision of pre-critical preventative care. Again, not perfect, but better.
@Penny McCain realizes that he can get medical treatment funded by taxpayers, because he's a Senator. It'd be hypocritical if he accepted that service, but denied healthcare to millions of people that pay for his.
Also, I think he's just enjoying ramming his middle finger up Trump's ass while he still can.
Good for him! I'm not in general a huge fan of McCain but I'm glad that he is standing firm on this issue. Now if we could just convince him to go for some sort of universal healthcare...
Sayeedea scanned the room with her submachine gun briefly but found no targets of any kind. It was clear the place was a xenoarchaeolgical gold mine, but that didn't help her much because she had no way to carry it off, or to control access to the compound. It was likely that the Terrans would eventually succeed in forcing the doorway and would waste no time in taking them all into custody. That might mean imprisonment, arrest or a plasmabolt to the back of the neck and Junebug wasn't willing to bet on what choice a black ops team, far from home, would make.
"Yeah its great and all," she said impatiently, "but we really don't have all day." Drake snorted as he reached one of the consoles and slipped into the seat. A flickering field, not unlike the keypad blinked into existence before him.
"Relax Rambabe, it would take a plasma cannon to get through that door,” Drake replied loftily.
“They have plasma cannon’s idiot, the dropship certainly has some, worse they can certainly get thermobaric breaching charges if they don't have them.” Junebug hoped they weren’t carrying anything that heavy for dismounted operations on a jungle world, but hoping was a good way to get your ass blown off. Drake looked a little chagrined at that but his confident expression quickly returned.
“It wont take me long, we will be gone long before they get here,” he reassured her and began touching icons on the screen. A moment later there was a discordant hum and dust rained down from the roof. A dodecahedral shape of what appeared to be solid light coalesced over some kind of aperture in the center of the room and then, cooled was the only term Sayeeda could think of, into a silver object the size of her head.
“The Core,” Drake said reverently and turned in his chair to look back at Sayeeda and Neil. He touched another button and a shimmering blue tube appeared around Junebug, the back of her throat prickling with ozoone. A similar tube flashed into existence around Neil. Sayeeda reached out a hand and pressed against the strange blue energy. It crackled beneath her hand and was impenetrable as stone.
“Stasis tubes,” Drake explained as he collected the Core, “I’m sorry I couldn’t have you dragging me back to my father.” Sayeeda unslung her submachine gun. A difficult task in the confined quarters.
“I wouldn’t do that,” Drake simpered, “The ricochettes you know? They should deactivate once I leave the facility, and if not, well your Terran buddies will be along.” @POOHEAD189
American Airlines flight 1733 thumped ungraciously down onto the tarmac of the grandly named Portland International Jetport. It was a new building, as American infrastructure went, brand new, but its presence on a drizzly fall day was not impressive. Three or four long runways, with taxi ways connecting them like capillaries to veins, carrying the little blood cells too and fro in the vast body of American society. The jolt of the earth thrusting up through the landing strut jolted Ellie awake and spilled the forgettable paperback romance from her fingers to the floor in a flutter of pages. Ellie stared disapprovingly down at the book she had fallen asleep reading, she weighed the cost of finding her place again against the probable loss of not knowing how the improbably shirtless Lord So-and-So and Suburban-housewife-stand-in ended up riding off into the sunset together. Deciding the information was unlikely to enrich her life, she left the paperback where it lay.
It was mid afternoon and the last of the early flights were touching down, in preparation for a second surge later in the evening. The concourse was thronged as the group descended the stairs and headed for baggage claim. Due to a combination of careful preparation and a few concealing enchantments, it hadn’t been an issue to bring weapons and equipment, regardless of how questionable it might be for a TSA inspector. Ellie pulled her own travel case, containing her handgun and other, more esoteric, tools from the slowly rotating carousel.
“I should have come to see her, she would have been here to meet me,” Madeline Holt said, a stricken expression contorting her face. The woman was dressed in comfortable traveling clothes, though her heavy jacket seemed excessive for the mild chill. Ellie felt a slight twing of… something as the woman spoke and cast an eye towards Leon. He didn’t appear to be doing anything active, but then it was hard to tell with his strange breed of totemic magic. Ellie didn’t trust other schools of the Art, intellectually she knew that didn’t make sense but no one who wielded arcane power wanted to believe that their were other avenues of understanding that were closed to them.
“You couldn’t have known what she was getting into,” Ellie said, reasonably, diplomatically, trying to calm her client down. The very last thing they needed was a hysterical and bereaved relative along for the ride, but Madeline had insisted, and she was paying. Also it was undeniably true that having the blood of one of the victims relatives was handy, although Ellie would rather have that in a biohazard bag in her case, than walking around beside her.
“I should have come!” Madeline snapped, apparently in no mood to be consoled. Ellie looked hopefully around her team for someone to pawn Madeline off on while she got on with the real work, but miraculously everyone had their head down in their own affairs. Sighing inwardly, Ellie wondered where she had left her aspirin.
Several floors above the baggage carousel a nondescript man in his late forties knelt in a chalk pentacle. The storage closet was only just large enough for the purpose, but it was out of the way and had been vouchsafed by a TSA officer who was a member of the congregation. The pentacle was of an unusual design, lacking the usual symmetry and stained in places with blood. A thick book, leather bound and printed sat in the center of the design as did an android smartphone, connected to the circle by two lengths of copper wire that were anchored into the bloody spots with adhesive putty.
“It is as you foretold,” the man said as he drew his mystical sight back up through the layers of concrete and steel, “The sister has returned, and she has brought allies.”
“Who?” the voice on the other end demanded, the speakerphone rendering his voice distorted and colorless in a way the watcher knew that it was not in truth.
“I do not recognise them, and I dare not look closer, on of them is as the Witch of Endor, she might sense my gaze were I to pry futher.” The speaker sweated through long heartbeats of silence, fearing he had displeased his master with his cowardice.
“The others?” the voice asked, chill but not in a cold killing rage.
“Uncertain master, shall I…”
“No we will use conventional means, return home at once that I may see your mind more clearly,” the disembodied voice commanded.
“These new comers are a complication and we are too far along to allow for complications.” There was a finality to the words that would have chilled the blood of a listener, had the listener still been human enough to fear anything other than his master.
Privileged Information:
After we leave the airport you will notice we are being tailed. This is a team of several men who had originally planned to snatch Madeline but didn't expect us to be there.
You would probably be able to feel the after effects of the viewing spell that was used on us.
We get odd glances from several TSA officials, even though we do nothing to deserve such attention.
wanderingwolf
Citrus
Naril
Tim the Yeti
Guardian Angel Haruki
LadyAnnaLee
ceolsige
Festive
Fetzen
Wayward