Our friend Sally's heart is in the right place, but she is a little vulnerable to multi-forwarded emails full of dubious propositions. Mostly they are more new age than political, but recently we got one from her, chock full of colors, typography and logos, purporting to be "A Message From Blue Cross Blue Shield To ALL AMERICANS" quoting one "Professor Emeritus John W. Hill, JD, PhD. Kelley School of Business , Indiana University."
"Professor Hill" states that, thanks to Obamacare, Medicare premiums are set rise after the elections from a monthly fee of $96.40, to (in great big scary red letters) $247.00 in 2014." It's "purposely delayed so as not to confuse the 2012 re-election campaigns." Then, a helpful suggestion: "Send this to all Seniors that you know, so they will know who's throwing them under the bus." Then a logo: "Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama." Finally, our old friend
"The information in this message is confidential and may be legally privileged. It is intended solely for the addressee. Access to this message by anyone else is unauthorized. If you are not the intended recipient, any disclosure, copying, or distribution of the message, or any action or omission taken by you in reliance on it, is prohibited and may be unlawful. Please delete the message and immediately contact the sender if you have received this message in error."
Goodness! I guess we're all in trouble!
I've mostly given up replying to forwarded nonsense, but Sally asked at the top, "What do you think about this? I'm confused." I wrote her something she found helpful. Crowegg told me I should post it. Here it is, right under the happy little cloud.
Hi Sally
Well, I routinely disbelieve very surprising undocumented claims in forwarded emails, and I can't really think of a time when I was wrong to do so. This one in particular really stinks to me. Why? A million stinking points.
No links to any supporting documents or websites-- why should I believe that? I've never heard of this before, and suddenly it comes in an anonymous whispering campaign two weeks before the elections. (That's an Alabama classic by the way, and a signature Karl Rove move. He used to use the telephone, this is much cheaper and easier to hide the source.) Mitt Romney never said anything about it in two debates. None of the official Republican spokesmen have pointed it out. (Republicans routinely grab bullshit out of the air to claim that Obamacare robs from medicare, if this was real they would have been shouting it to the rooftops ever since the bill was passed.)
Professional conservatives use projection as a kind of martial art, they take what is least likable about themselves and project it energetically onto their political enemies. Kerry was the coward in Vietnam, Liberals are the fascists, Democrats cheat in elections, Obama wants to end Medicare as we know it.
This email comes in under the radar right at the end of the campaign, it's a classic political dirty trick. I'm guessing they call it "viral marketing" and are doing it a lot, all over the country. They have literal tons of money, TV ads weren't working. I'm betting they've paid people to hang out at bars and start up conversations in swing states-- that's the kind of thing advertisers have been using to shape trends with key demographics for decades. They are master propagandists. It's why the polls are as close as they are.
Now I'm no health care expert, god knows, I'm just looking at the thing you sent me, and on the face of it I see no reason to believe it and every reason to disbelieve it. But if you're still worried or confused, go ahead and call an expert-- Medicare, Vermont Blue Cross, Congressman Welch, or the Community Health Center-- and ask them. Anything like that would be on their radar, and if they say they never heard of it, or if there's something but that's not what it is, please send the word around.
No matter who ends up in power we'll have to be vigilant. Democrats are too willing to give in to the very wealthy by accepting gradual diminution of social benefits in the name of fiscal responsibility, when the real culprit is the criminally low taxes paid by the very wealthy combined with a criminally overfunded military. But I'm quite sure this email is evil bullshit. Was that at all helpful?
TimJ
(she said it was helpful)