329 Comments
User's avatar
Claudia Montague Wheatley's avatar

Half the country is on track to learn that "Obamacare" and the ACA are the same thing—just as they're about to lose it.

And I find it increasingly hard to sympathize.

Expand full comment
WJB Motown's avatar

The calls for a general strike and massive coast to coast protests need to become a tidalwave groundswell of citizen opposition to this demonic attempt to destroy the United States of America. Orange Hitler is using the Orban/Putin "How to destroy democracy handbook.."

Expand full comment
Deborah Murphy's avatar

Yes he is. Orban used his hand selected supporters in the parliament to change Hungary's constitution and laws. He made it so he will never lose an election. The Hungarian people are sad and hopeless. Hungary is at the bottom of most happy countries

Expand full comment
Margaret MacKenzie's avatar

Budapest was always a destination I wanted to visit. But just like more than half the states in America, I’m afraid Hungary is no longer on my travel list. I do not dispute the beauty and history each has to offer and I will miss experiencing all that in person. I just do not want my hard earned money to go to regions- whether domestically or internationally- that support neo-fascism.

Expand full comment
Ruth Sheets's avatar

Margaret, I see where you are coming from. I am so devastated that a state where I spent 8 years of my life has turned into an even more racist, misogynistic place than ever. Tennessee has embraced every stupid, hateful proposal to do harm to its residents, that is, if they are not rich, white, male, homo/transphobic, and pseudo-christian. The people of the state, I hear, are reeled in by people who keep telling them no one but they are listening to the pathetic pleas of the people while all kinds of government programs have been serving the people of TN and those they are voting for are the ones in the way of any progress. It is amazing just how often people want to believe lies, are even charmed by them. I know it is their nurtured racism, misogyny and the rest that keep their thinking from happening, but in the meantime, I will not visit there again or any other red states unless I am passing through and I will do my best to put no money into their businesses any time soon.

Expand full comment
Annie Ball's avatar

These are the situations where assassins are born.

Expand full comment
Timothy Tucker's avatar

Too close to Russia. All the Good Places aren't good to go to any more. I'll just stay here and get screwed in my own language.

Expand full comment
Roxanne Beaulieu's avatar

WTG Tim hope the government does not take that away !!💙🙋🏻‍♀️

Expand full comment
Randy W's avatar

SORRY, i REPORTED THE WRONG POST.

Expand full comment
paige sisserman's avatar

we will be sad and helpless also..

Expand full comment
Annie Ball's avatar

I'll not be helpless. I'll find & use any power I do have to fight back. I allowed myself one day of sadness & self pity after the election. I'm not sad, I'm enraged at the level of ignorance & laziness of half the voters. But more than that, those voters endorse cruelty, corruption, thievery of OUR Treasury & any chance for the health/financial future of coming generations to collect the government benefits THEY paid for, they endorse the destruction of our dignity, our freedom,our global reputation, our health systems, and support the criminal power mongers & seedy greedy grifters.

Expand full comment
Mary Redmiles's avatar

And no foreigners will want to travel here either

Expand full comment
Jim Sanders's avatar

I will not travel to a red state.

Expand full comment
Annie Ball's avatar

Let's not forget the Nazi handbook.

Expand full comment
Sharon Williams's avatar

Or trump's favorite fable about the snake. I couldn't believe the first time he told it and I thought "My god, he's talking about himself."

Expand full comment
MARY SUSAN WATKINS's avatar

YES SHARON..I TOO HAVE HAD THE SAME THOUGHT...

Expand full comment
joy maugans's avatar

That's so scary!!!

Expand full comment
Annie Ball's avatar

I empathize with the millions of adults & kids) who are not Trump voters/supporters, who are grateful for their health care & don't give a rats patoot about the color of the skin of the politician who set it up and made it a possibility for them to have health care. As for the Trumpers who discover this & are affected, that's only one little surprise they'll be getting. And F them.

Expand full comment
Tellina Warren's avatar

My god, they are so attached to their whiteness as identity they don’t know who they are without the idea of everyone capitulating to the delusion that they are superior humans. I hate them so much right now. No f*cking self reflection whatsoever. It’s difficult to co-exist with such derelicts. 🤮

Expand full comment
Katherine Cline's avatar

I’d agree if this stuff didn’t apply to the other half of people in ACA programs voted for somebody else and will pay the same price, no matter who they voted for.

Expand full comment
Tracy S's avatar

I find it impossible to sympathize.

Expand full comment
kdsherpa's avatar

Agree with you 100%.

Expand full comment
netta glaser's avatar

ME TOO

Expand full comment
Martha's avatar

I’ve heard people rage against “Obamacare,” without realizing that the insurance they hold is ACA insurance. I’m losing sympathy with our collective ignorance. As much as I’d love to see the fallout when people realize just who and what they’ve elected, it will harm the wrong people, and his staunchest supporters will never admit they are wrong. They’ll just continue to reinvent reality.

Expand full comment
Claire Read, PhD's avatar

Agreed on all counts.

Expand full comment
Rob & Sandy Peterson's avatar

But, they learned that his first term, or should have. I recall the mass meetings where people were told that, much to their surprise. Thank Republicans for thinking up their hoped for "pejorative" Obamacare.

Expand full comment
Annie Ball's avatar

Well if we were talking about normal minds, yes they would have learned it in his first term. Unfortunately we're talking about people who do you not want to seek the truth, reality, or exert a scintilla of work to investigate whether what Trump and his Republi-Fascists is accurate or factual. They're happy to just go along with the Orange Fuhrer & absolutely believe everything he says...just like good brainwashed cult members do. Then there's the small percentage who do get it but are too greedy for power and money themselves they're willing to ignore it, believing they are immune.

Expand full comment
Rosalind 🍁's avatar

But if there is no vaccine for the next pandemic then the Black Death will look like nothing much as Democrats and Republicans suffer equally. Back yard fences and borders on a map will be equally useless,

Expand full comment
David A Pitock's avatar

Claudia, I have read comments on YouTube of all places where one commentator said and I quote " we finally killed Obama care glad we still have the ACA though" every comment after that is what you would expect. My favorite wasn't nice, genius Obama care is the ACA. Some just don't get it,faux news strikes again

Expand full comment
James Roberts's avatar

Oz has actually argued for the expansion of Medicare. Easy to find these stories, e.g. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/dr-oz-wants-to-expand-private-medicare-plans-heres-how-he-could-do-it-172956265.html

Expand full comment
David A Pitock's avatar

Privatized Medicare, which would be easier to loot.

Expand full comment
James Roberts's avatar

We already have it.

In what way is it easier to loot?

Expand full comment
KDoyle's avatar

Mary, Thank you for your presence and dedication throughout this shit show. I honor you.

Expand full comment
Debbie's avatar

Thank you, KDoyle. I see dt on TV and am immediately nauseas, filled wiyh contempt, disgust followed by tears and fear. After reading any comment by Mary my backbone seems to straighten, I don't feel quite so alone and begin thinking again how I, individually, can fight this hypocritical, orange, double-talking imbecile. (Somebody HAS to be telling him what to do. He sure doesn't speak as if he is very 'smart', perhaps rich. That's all. I am frightened. Mary speaks to my insecurities, squelching their intensities, and I bet for others. You, in a brief comment, thank you, seemed to thank her on those lines also. Your apparent ease in so doing opened the door for me to comment on mine. Thank you. Stay strong - thinking of you.

Expand full comment
Katie Davis's avatar

I, too, gain strength for the struggle ahead from Mary's clear thinking and writing. We all are on an ebb & flow riding the waves. (Another substack writer I find to supportive in the same way is John Pavlovitz.) One further thought Mary might clear up for us. It seems to me her uncle is not rich. Why would he need ro use donor funds and sell sneakers & Bibles to pay his attorneys? Or have other wealthy men funding his campaign? I wonder that six times bankrupt means he's leveraged to his teeth. Plus, he's a really bad businessman. Like, who bankrupts a casino? Was it Mary who said that? Seems to me, oligarchs across the globe have bought him and will now run our country. All for the love of money. People traded their children's future for the price of eggs?

Expand full comment
Jan Lorraine Lee's avatar

Mary is amazing ! I love John P. It's a fascist tsunami coming but I'm an idealist and believe good will overcome evil. Stay good.

Expand full comment
Leanna Miller's avatar

100000% this!

Expand full comment
Leanna Miller's avatar

Literally!!! She makes me feel sane watching this absolute sh*t show go down!!

Expand full comment
Annie Ball's avatar

Thank you for focusing on this. It is at this stage the canary in the coal mine. People are acting like the healthcare system now is fine. As a long time registered nurse with a master's in public health I can tell you it is broken already. And now we're going to have someone who's going to dump gasoline on it and light a match. Cuz if you don't have your health, you don't have the strength and energy to fight back. Cruelty as policy

Expand full comment
netta glaser's avatar

that seems to be the purpose.

Expand full comment
Todd Bruse's avatar

We can’t confirm it yet but I’d bet, your uncle, The Felon, rigged this election. He’s been projecting that for a decade and those of us with experience know that narcissists ALWAYS tell on themselves through their accusations.

Meanwhile the 4th estate continues to bend the knee instead of using their mighty pen to fight the outrageous result of their complicity. Shame.

Expand full comment
Bonnie Kline's avatar

I’ve wondered the same thing…just as he’s projected that the Dems were cheating all along. Most likely he figured out a way to cheat. He was very smug and nonchalant about winning his campaign. Makes me wonder.

Expand full comment
Susan Stone's avatar

Don't forget that he told "christians" they didn't need to vote because he already had enough votes. What I've been hearing about bullet ballots fits right in with that.

Expand full comment
Bonnie Kline's avatar

Yes…There’s got to be a reason he kept up spouting off to “my Christians”…

Expand full comment
S howard's avatar

What is a bullet ballot??? Please explain yourself.

Expand full comment
S howard's avatar

Okay I looked it up. Excuse me for my ignorance I did not catch it right at first. Thanks.

Expand full comment
Susan Stone's avatar

No problem. I would have been happy to explain it because I had just learned about it myself. No need to apologize for not knowing.

Expand full comment
Annie Ball's avatar

Everything these fascists accuse Democrats of are actually descriptions of exactly what they're doing or what they're planning to do abiding by the old Nazi propaganda rules.

Expand full comment
Claire Read, PhD's avatar

Narcissitcs and psychopaths always accuse the other side of what they have done or are planning to do themselves. They put the other side on the defensive and accuse them of the crimes they themselves have or will commit. I was married to one and, believe me, I know how subtlety cruel they are. Always charming until they get what they want and then the mask is dropped. tRump is dropping it now and those who voted for him without doing their due diligence are starting to be really surprised. And we get to live with this mess. As I said before, I feel like I am living in a revised version of The Man in The High Castle. Scary shit.

Expand full comment
Maggie Anderson's avatar

'Due diligence'? To do that critical thinking skills would help. and with over half the country barely functioning with 6th grade learning, or less. The Orange Maggot gave them someone to hate, immigrants. Those knuckledraggers voted for that asshole because they believed he would hurt the people they envy and hate. The poorly educated don't know he can't stand them either.

Expand full comment
Katherine Cline's avatar

I think we can say the playing field was unequal due to citizens United and the unlimited funds a few were able to add, and from the unprecedented quantities of propaganda/lies. Both are critical to their mission.

Expand full comment
Todd Bruse's avatar

Yes. The ineffectiveness of the 4th Estate upholding the duties of that institution… Shame.

Expand full comment
S howard's avatar

Don't forget the Catholic supreme Court that rules over us all. I used to be Catholic but now I despise the church and the Pope.

Expand full comment
Annie Ball's avatar

Oh they'll find out- eventually. Sadly, I'll be long dead before they do.

Expand full comment
Irene warsaw's avatar

Doctor Oz 🤢🤢🤢🤢 Satan is bound and determined to destroy all of us and he just keeps filling up the clown car 😢😢😢😢

Expand full comment
Christina Gray's avatar

Sadly, Oz was once a noted thoracic-cardio surgeon practicing in NYC. Then he went on Oprah and discovered he could make more money without a scalpel. He is also a Muslim -- that is not going to sit well with the Leonard Leo set.

All roads are starting to point to Vance as 48.

Expand full comment
Annie Ball's avatar

Sadly, I found most surgeons do not do well outside of the operating theatre & their surgery duties. They are well noted for poor bedside manners, even rudeness, but with a surgeon generally what matters is their skill in the operating room taking care of that surgical need. No long-term relationships, thank gawd. Of all the surgeons I've worked with, I can only think of three I liked as a human being. Oz is one of the former- take him out if the surgical role & you get a hideous bad character with values that are only concerned with money & power. That's what we have seen. Not only that. A surgeon is the worst medical professional to put in that kind of role because they have no global vision of what medical needs for the poor are.

Expand full comment
Susan Stone's avatar

I agree, and would add that such people don't care about the poor. Or the aged.

Expand full comment
Bonnie Brooks's avatar

Or, themselves.

Expand full comment
Amy Troy's avatar

Well articulated! I share your opinion in this matter.

Expand full comment
janet's avatar

Yup. The lack of interpersonal skills and higher rate of personality disorders among surgeons is documented in the literature - along with personal observations of course.

Expand full comment
Aslo White's avatar

Surgeons are good mechanics, nothing more. They are not bright.

Expand full comment
Kali Higgins's avatar

Oz, is a Smarmy ex-Surgeon. With a very synchronistic last name. Think of the famous movie ‘Dorothy & The Wizard of Oz.’ Not quite up to his legend. Just like the Election “winner.”

Expand full comment
Moya Satterwhite's avatar

I had a vascular surgeon once who’d done surgery on me. A friend had given me a playgirl magazine, as a joke. So as he came on rounds he ignored me but looked at the magazine intently! He must have really liked naked Burt Reynolds’s.

Expand full comment
Heather.B's avatar

Trump is a TV actor and he is filling his administration with actors. They don’t have the skills for the office they are assigned, but they can ACT and not in anyone’s favor.

Trump picks have nothing to do with actual qualifications at all it’s like he’s picking staff for his old apprentice show, that really sucked for entertainment!

This Administration shall be called Hollyweird for all the actors and strange acting they will do.

NO MORE ACTORS IN GOVERNMENT!

Proud to be a liberal woman, now more than ever! Proud to wear this totally unhinged radical liberal t-shirt in front of Republicans 👇

https://libtees-2.creator-spring.com/listing/radlib

Trump and co want to make the government NO longer functional!

Expand full comment
Dennis King's avatar

Yes! Heather. King Ronold R. was a big screen actor, and the economy tanked after his second term, just like it did after drumpf's first. Just how bad it will be for poor and working slobs after tariff-Donnie's unknown tenure in office is unfathomable.

Expand full comment
Annie Ball's avatar

Unless there's a 3 way eradication of Trump, Vance & Johnson

Expand full comment
WJB Motown's avatar

They most likely are having a theesome in one of the Florida bedrooms

Expand full comment
Annie Ball's avatar

😲😂🤣🤣🤣

Expand full comment
Susan Linehan's avatar

I was initially worried that the plan was to 86 trump on 25th Amendment grounds and install Vance, ASAP. And that Vance would be worse. But now it is hard to see how JD or ANYONE could be worse.

On the other hand, these appointments do seem to possibly provide the basis for use of the 25th.

Expand full comment
Reader/Writer's avatar

Well, that has been the plan all along.

Expand full comment
Reader/Writer's avatar

Has anybody heard from Jiggly Dongle?

Expand full comment
S howard's avatar

And idiots even Democratic idiots will vote for him just to get shrump out of office. Mark my words.

Expand full comment
Susan Linehan's avatar

my biggest worry, as caretaker for a disabled relative, is that Oz will cut disability benefits and Medicare for those "losers" who dare to have a disability. We all know Donnybrook's position on disability in general. Not to mention cutting VA benefits for wounded "losers."

Expand full comment
Clark Balderson's avatar

Mary, thank you for your columns, especially those from the last couple weeks. You are pinpointing the dangers in a very deliberately and methodically, and in ways that are straight forward and easy to understand. I can only wish that somehow, the wider populace could see or hear these on a daily basis. Nonetheless, keep it up. We need y ou.

Expand full comment
HungarianAgrarian's avatar

Take away govenment health insurance from GOP!

Expand full comment
APR's avatar

Wishful thinking...

Expand full comment
Jennifer M.'s avatar

Shame on the news media for neglecting to inform the public that most recipients of so-called “entitlements” - Medicaid, Medicare, social security, as well as Obamacare, are rural white folk. And shame on these folk for not putting in an ounce of effort to educate themselves.

Expand full comment
janet's avatar

I dislike the term "entitlement" program frankly, going back to when I did advanced training in social policy in the ice age. As for Medicare - most recipients have paid into it over decades of their worklives.

Expand full comment
Jennifer M.'s avatar

I agree and that’s why I said so-called “entitlements.” Deliberately misleading way to talk about it.

Expand full comment
Susan Stone's avatar

Janet, a slight correction: we paid into Social Security when working. Medicare is something we pay monthly premiums for, just like with any other health insurance.

Expand full comment
janet's avatar

I'm apparently suffering from complexPTSD. Of course, you're correct! Thank you noting.

Expand full comment
Susan Stone's avatar

You are welcome, janet. PTSD is no fun - I've dealt with it for years.

Expand full comment
janet's avatar

I meant this somewhat ironically though I am deeply concerned about our country and I'm sure I am not alone. Community is especially important at this moment, no?! I recall that being in my doctor's waiting room during the first Trump term and most people were seeking mental health care.

Expand full comment
Susan Stone's avatar

I'm glad to know that people were seeking mental health care. I think a lot of us will need it even more this time around, especially if leaving the country isn't an option.

Expand full comment
Susan Stone's avatar

A lot of us older folks who appreciate Medicare and Social Security live in cities.

Expand full comment
Jennifer M.'s avatar

I hear you. Just saying, many rural people are recipients and vote against their own interests.

Expand full comment
Susan Stone's avatar

Which is something I will never understand, even though I have the information as to why they do that. It's crazy.

Expand full comment
Beverly Asmutis's avatar

Of note: Dr. Fauci gave up his practice of medicine to serve as the chief medical researcher at the Institute of Health in the public good for 40 years. He was not in favor of Trump’s COVID response. In return, Trump reviled and threatened him so that after his retirement he needed round the clock protection from threats to his and his family’s lives.

Expand full comment
Marlo's avatar

Typical mob mentality: threatening people when you don’t like to hear the truth.

Expand full comment
Norm's avatar

My predictions have proven to be not worth a damn, but I still believe the MAGA movement will collapse from within. These obviously unqualified Cabinet nominees will hasten the process. I only hope America does not collapse with it.

Expand full comment
Paula B.'s avatar

I've been wondering if that will happen too. Gaetz just withdrew his name from consideration for AG. A trend?????

Expand full comment
Susan Stone's avatar

One could hope. But then again, it could get even worse.

Expand full comment
Norm's avatar

If Putin’s Pinocchio wants to spend all his political capital getting these lame-o’s confirmed, I say, hey, have at it. I have to believe that at least some of the 11 million misguided souls who voted for Biden and did not vote for Harris will have a severe bout of buyer’s remorse along the way. The next four years could be hell for America, but we’ll survive. We always do.

Expand full comment
S howard's avatar

I think historically we need to look at Nazi Germany to predict what will happen here in the US. Now it's not going to be exactly the same but they are definitely following the Nazi guide book and some of the Republican supporters are definitely Nazis in many forms. There is also the KKK - white supremacist and the anti-human rights churches in this country. Even abortion is an issue between misogyny and women's equal rights. There's definitely evil in this world and the Republican party dominates as the major evil.

Expand full comment
J Tolson's avatar

Actually I think Oz meant 2-3% of the US population would die to "get our mojo back." Everyone with kids knows schools are a petri dish of transmittable disease so the kids would meet, get sick and take the illness home to more vulnerable adult family members who would then die even if the child did not. The US population in April 2020 when Oz said this was over 330 million people so 2 to 3% of that is 6.6 to 9.9 million people dead. Because enough people actually listened to Dr. Faucci instead of "Dr." Oz, the US only lost ~1.1 million people through March 2023 to COVID-19 so we did not sacrifice 5.5 to 8.8 million people for mojo.

Expand full comment
Graham Breed's avatar

And now the Moron-in- Chief is selling Guitars. How many of his plucking cult will buy one?🎸

Expand full comment
catsongs's avatar

Well, he does think he looks like Elvis...

Expand full comment
Ande Jacobson's avatar

If only there were a way for those who voted for your uncle to experience the full specter of horror he wants to inflict without taking those of us who voted responsibly down with them.

Expand full comment
Channa Thomas's avatar

Jesus, I am so tired of all this. I will never understand why that person got elected. He's a rapist. A racist. He's appointing every

freak but Ernest T. Bass to his cabinet. I'm 66 years old and I can't afford to start all over again. And no I am not sorry I voted for

Kamala Harris. Aside from Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama that's the best choice I ever made.

Expand full comment