My parents are in Cuba and I tried calling them on the phone but it didn’t connect. So I started wondering: can one call Cuba from the US? And are we going to get a black mark against us in some DofD file for trying to call, in case one of us applies for US citizenship in two years?

By the way, my parents wrote in an email that the Internet connection in Cuba is as slow and expensive as it was 10 years ago.

Some things don’t change.

I don’t know who Jennifer Kesler is but I agree with what she says completely, and that never happens:

I actually like small government and a truly “conservative” approach to the economy. But the GOP is only about “small government” when it comes to the poor. In addition to serving bigots, they will expand the government as much as you want if it helps out Wall Street, bails out big business, or improves the sleep of people who want better policing of those nasty women, gays and all those people of color we need to shoot. They can always find funding for a new series of departments to cover those needs. The GOP as we know it will die in a couple of decades, if not before. Nothing can stop that. They didn’t just put their money on the wrong horse: they bought the horse, rode it proudly at every event and loudly publicized how much it meant to them.

Maybe Jennifer Kesler and I should start a party of our own.

And on the subject of abortion, people just blab too much, seriously. Once again, take PUPPPS. I’m talking about it because this is what I have experienced but there can be a million other things like this.

There are people who get PUPPPS on week 16, week 20, week 26, etc. If the government forcing a person to undergo this for months doesn’t constitute cruel and unusual punishment, then I don’t know what does.

And the longer you have it during pregnancy, the longer it stays with you after. The receptors in the brain that process painful itching are located right next to the receptors that process drug addiction. So after a few months of PUPPPS, you have to battle the mental equivalent of a heroin addiction to make it stop.

Nobody studies this affliction and there are no remedies because this is just women’s suffering, so who cares? Certainly not the self-righteous busybodies who think their stupid religion justifies inflicting torture on people.

The terror that anti-choicers inflict on human beings prevents doctors from conducting C-sections before week 39 of gestation. In my case, for instance, it would have made every sense to conduct the procedure in week 36. Who knows, we might have even had a live baby as a result. But since this is currently illegal, we don’t. Under the guise of saving babies, anti-abortionists kill them.

Doesn’t it make every sense on the planet to leave these decisions to women and their doctors instead of to stupid preachers and their sadistic followers?

Making an off-hand generalizing statements is never a good idea, people. Especially, when you are talking about something that lies far outside anything you could possibly experience.

I have been shocked and wounded, for instance, by reiterated assertions that “maternity care is covered by insurance.” Some maternity care costs are sometimes covered by some insurances. This doesn’t mean, however, that all costs are always covered.

I have one of the best, most comprehensive kinds of health insurance anybody can get in this country. Still, just today I’m paying $450 out of pocket for my maternity care costs that are never covered by any insurance. Mind you, this is what I pay on a regular basis and will continue paying for quite some time to come.

Part if this sum is teeth and gum treatment because gestational periodontitis doesn’t just go away after gestation ends. The rest of this money goes to mental health care that is also not covered because it isn’t pill-based. Leaving aside “advanced fetal death”, the mental consequences of PUPPPS alone will have to be dealt with for a while. It’s an absolutely horrifying experience that can lead to psychotic breaks, suicide attempts, etc both during and after pregnancy.

None of this is covered by any insurance. And these are just two maternity-related afflictions I happen to be experiencing. There can be many more.

I don’t understand why Jamie Dimon’s 74% raise is getting discussed so much.

If his bank gets no money from the government, then it’s nobody’s business how this private entity chooses to compensate its employees.

And if the bank does get money from the government, that should stop regardless of what Dimon is making or whether Dimon even exists.

So it seems that  François Hollande has ditched the anti-capital spiel and has fully embraced austerity and governmental support for big corporations.

Interesting.