Pharmacist says he has filled Alzheimer's prescriptions for members of Congress

Re:Pharmacist says he has filled Alzheimer's prescriptions f... by bell-cot on Wednesday August 30, 2023 @03:35PM (#37327759)

Cynical Reaction: So what? I've heard plenty of stories, over decades, about how every congressman (who isn't permanently retiring from politics) is far too busy fundraising and talking to lobbyists and trying to get media coverage and {other not-in-our-interest political crap} to pay attention to what they are voting on. If we are lucky, the bill was mostly written by junior congressional staff, who still retain a few small fragments of "for the voters" idealism. If we're unlucky, the bill was written by whichever lobbyist wrote the fattest check. Either way, it hardly matters to us if Senator Slime-Trail needs an aide to rescue him when he can't find the urinal in the Lady's Room.

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Re:Pharmacist says he has filled Alzheimer's prescriptions f... by Clubber on Wednesday August 30, 2023 @04:09PM (#37328268)

When Trump got elected, I remember hearing lots of stories about how it took him forever to fill his cabinet seats.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/23/politics/trump-cabinet-vacanc...

https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/11/politics/temps-and-vacancies/...

https://time.com/4703304/why-president-trump-struggling-to-s...

The machine runs itself. I wonder how much ability any elected official has to move the machine in one direction or the other. Probably not much, at least in any meaningful way.

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Re:Pharmacist says he has filled Alzheimer's prescriptions f... by no_wizard on Wednesday August 30, 2023 @04:41PM (#37328768)

Congress absolutely has a lot of power over things. Congress controls the budget and legislative direction for the country. With the passage of a law, it can shut down entire departments. With the inability to pass say, a budget, entire arms of the government shut down.

The President also has a fair amount of power too, over seat appointments, usage of Executive Orders, and one we haven't seen since President Andrew Jackson, the ability to willfully ignore things that the President is suppose to do (President Jackson famously ignored the outcome of Worcester v. Georgia to the peril of the Cherokee)

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Re:Pharmacist says he has filled Alzheimer's prescriptions f... by datavirtue on Wednesday August 30, 2023 @04:54PM (#37328979)

Jackson gets a pass for The Bank War.

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Re:Pharmacist says he has filled Alzheimer's prescriptions f... by Vicinity9635 on Wednesday August 30, 2023 @07:57PM (#37330738)

We're overdue for another one.

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Re:Pharmacist says he has filled Alzheimer's prescriptions f... by Vicinity9635 on Wednesday August 30, 2023 @07:56PM (#37330734)

Meanwhile, Citigroup picked Obama's cabinet before he was sworn in: https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2016/10/15/wiki-o15.html

Sometimes government efficiency is a symptom of a something worse than government inefficiency.

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Re:Pharmacist says he has filled Alzheimer's prescriptions f... by genter on Wednesday August 30, 2023 @04:09PM (#37328279)

How about getting some Senators that actually do pay attention to what they are voting on? The first step is making it public that some of them are losing their capabilities (although that should be obvious by watching McConnell or Pelosi).

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Re:Pharmacist says he has filled Alzheimer's prescriptions f... by bell-cot on Wednesday August 30, 2023 @04:21PM (#37328437)

To what end? They are not working for us. Convincing the mafia boss to send Ivy League-educated enforcers, to shake your neighborhood down for protection money, does not meaningfully improve life in your neighborhood.

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Re:Pharmacist says he has filled Alzheimer's prescriptions f... by Robotbeat on Wednesday August 30, 2023 @04:32PM (#37328604)

So they can step down or get primaried (etc) by people who have full control over their faculties.

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Re:Pharmacist says he has filled Alzheimer's prescriptions f... by genter on Wednesday August 30, 2023 @04:27PM (#37328540)

We have this thing called voting where we could chose senators that do work for us.

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Re:Pharmacist says he has filled Alzheimer's prescriptions f... by sammyjoe72 on Wednesday August 30, 2023 @04:32PM (#37328620)

Imagine if everyone turned out to vote .. why doesn’t the US do it on a weekend, or make it some kind of holiday, why is it a Tuesday?

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Re:Pharmacist says he has filled Alzheimer's prescriptions f... by jimrob4 on Wednesday August 30, 2023 @04:37PM (#37328716)

At the time, Tuesday was the best day.

Now it makes no sense other than being an obstacle, and therefore one more thing in the way of people actually running the government.

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Re:Pharmacist says he has filled Alzheimer's prescriptions f... by kevinmchugh on Wednesday August 30, 2023 @04:45PM (#37328833)

It's unlikely that either Feinstein or McConnell will be reelected, regardless of when the election is held. The scale of their health effects weren't known at their last election.

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Re:Pharmacist says he has filled Alzheimer's prescriptions f... by bell-cot on Wednesday August 30, 2023 @04:52PM (#37328938)

Compared to paying enough attention to all of our myriad elected officials, to know which ones of them are up to what kinds of crooked dealings...having to vote on a Tuesday is a "...and remember to staple your 47-part filled-out-by-hand paper tax filing in the upper-left corner before mailing it to the IRS" sort of detail.

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Re:Pharmacist says he has filled Alzheimer's prescriptions f... by unethical_ban on Wednesday August 30, 2023 @04:37PM (#37328714)

Just state you believe improving American politics is hopeless, and stop asking questions as if you expect to be convinced otherwise.

To me, this nihilistic cynicism is self-fulfilling. If the population believes and furthermore accepts, as you do, that politics is inherently irredeemable and corrupt, then that is the politics we will get.

Even if a system is riddled with problems, it is the obligation of a citizen to at least give a damn and expect more from the system.

Additionally, it is ridiculous to ridicule people for trying to fix issue #1 just because there are 10 issues. We can call for fixing, through mere voting or more strictly through law, that legislators are to be mentally fit and retire when they are past a traditional retirement age.

We can also be demanding/expecting our legislators to work for our communities, or lobby/petition to change House elections to Ranked-choice, to lobby for campaign finance reform, or whatever changes you feel are necessary to the structure of our governments.

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