Live for Tomorrow

At 1:13 PM EST the U.S. Senate passed a budget resolution that will begin the process of repealing Obamacare. The final vote tally was 51-48. The resolution instructs the House to have a repeal bill ready by January 27.

Seven years ago, on December 24, 2009, the Senate voted 60-39 to pass Obamacare. All Republicans voted against it, all Democrats voted for it.

“Today, we take the first steps to repair the nation’s broken health care system, removing Washington from the equation and putting control back where it belongs: with patients, their families, and their doctors,” Republican Senator Mike Enzi of Wyoming, chairman of the Senate Budget Committee who sponsored the legislation, said in a statement.

Republicans did not have the 60 votes needed to repeal Obamacare, so they opted to defund it via a budget resolution, which only requires a simple majority.

“That means they can essentially gut the law, removing all the subsidies that help low- and middle-income people buy health insurance and getting rid of the smorgasbord of taxes — on medical devices, insurance companies and wealthy individuals — that pay for those subsidies,” NPR explained.

Republicans, despite having voted more than 60 times to repeal Obamacare, have never had a legitimte replacement plan. It is widely reported that they will take two to four years to replace the Affordable Care Act, leaving up to 30 million Americans without insurance, and many paying exceptionally high premiums for having pre-existing conditions, including HIV, diabetes, cancer, and even pregnancy.

Repealing Obamacare also devastates Medicare, and will cost taxpayers billions of dollars. Donald Trump uring the presidential campaign promised he would never touch Social Security or Medicare.

JASMINE MATCHA SNOWBALL COOKIES (VEGAN).

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Earth Balance. The opinions and text are all mine.

Despite the season’s best efforts to woo me with cakes and cookies and pies (even those coming out of my own kitchen), I’ve been doggedly drawn to savories this winter. I crave soups and broths, piles of steaming veggies and stews, anything to stave off the cold (I know, I’m in Los Angeles—but these walls and windows aren’t built for 50º weather!). This weekend, though, the holiday cookie bug snuck its way into my heart. You know the urge, that longing to get cozy with your oven whilst donning your most well-worn sweats and grooving to the best holiday tunes you can find. Yup, that one.

I grew up making two kinds of holiday cookies, recipes that were my mother’s family heirlooms: raspberry linzertorte bars and pecan snowball cookies (or Russian or Mexican wedding cookies, depending who you ask). Suddenly, in the midst of my reigning savory preference, I decided it was high time to make some snowballs. Except I wanted mine laced with the fragrance of jasmine and bright with matcha green tea.

A tiny journal-ish gif-comic from a few tweets I made last night!  I believed this kind of stuff until I was 14 or so, which is pretty old in retrospect…

Hello Nonny,

A lot of veterinary schools actually have courses & lessons on proper communication with clients. I know at Ross, as we got into our later semesters right before clinics we actually had people come in & “act like clients.” We didn’t have a script, but they were told what to say & how to try to drive the conversation. It was our job to use what we’d learn to properly communicate with them & get our point across or achieve some goal.

We’re basically trained. As awkward as that may sound…

We are taught to be conscious of our tone, our word choice, our body posture, our facial expressions, how to approach subjects, & how to handle various emotions thrown our way. Address the pet by name. Don’t get the sex wrong. Firm hand shake. State your name clearly. Eye contact. Smile. Keep your body turned toward them. Open body posture. Explain what you’re doing. It was all drilled into us to the point that even now, I find myself using what they taught us without giving it a second thought.

Aside from taking what my school taught me, the best way to handle client communication is practice. Practice, practice, & practice some more. Use your friends/family if you have to. It’ll become more comfortable for you as you go along. It’ll become second nature.

WELL WHERE THE FUCK DID IT GO

THATS RIGHT, KIT-KATS. I JUST AUTOMATICALLY SPELLED IT WITH A DASH.

WELL FUCK ME UP!! CAUSE APPARENTLY THERE AIN’T NO DASH ANMORE

SMOKEY THE BEAR.

NOPE. IT’S SMOKEY BEAR

THAT WAS NEVER THERE BEFORE. I HAD TO RECREATE A PAINTING OF HER FOR A SCHOOL PROJECT AND MY REFERENCE PHOTO WAS NOT THIS

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OUR CURRENT TIMELINE SEEMS TO DISAGREE