Wisconsin Woman and Husband Contracted COVID 19, Quarantined, Feared Med Costs — Wife Died at 54

No matter how beautiful, no matter what a Jean Flansburgh brings to her community, she doesn't count, not to D.C. politicians

Madison, Wisconsin —  Linda "Flansy" Jean Flansburgh of Black Earth, Wisconsin (Dane County), died from COVID 19 on September 29, 2020 on her last day of her two-week quarantine.

Ms. Flansburgh, (July 14, 1966 - September 29, 2020), was a lifelong Wisconsinite.

By all accounts, Flansburgh was beloved, the type of person who brought light to a situation through an easy smile and a quick wit.

But Ms. Flansburgh need not have died, reports A. J. Bayatpour of WKOW-TV (Madison).

Ms. Flansburgh, like the rest of us, feared the massive costs incurred for medical treatment in the American healthcare system that places profit over the lives and health of people.

After contracting COVID 19, she went into quarantine on Sept 15, feared medical costs and delayed medical treatment, then suddenly died on Sept 29.

Reports A. J. Bayatpour of WKOW:

For Kenneth Linde, his niece's [Jean Flansburgh] death is a statement about all of the problems facing the American middle class. Linde bemoaned how his niece needed a second job in order to afford 'a night out to have fish fry' and found that job tending bar, where he worried she may have caught the novel corona virus.

Flansburgh's husband, Joe, also caught the virus. Linde said the couple never went to see a doctor, fearing it would lead to a hospital bill that would overwhelm them.

'For two weeks, they coughed and wheezed and looked at each other, alone, sequestered in quarantine with their three dogs,' Linde said.

Linde said, on their 14th day of quarantine, Joe ran to the store to buy more dog food. When he got back home, Linda was dead.

Linde acknowledges his niece was overweight and that was a pre-existing condition that put her at risk of a severe COVID infection. He said the focus on COVID victims, however, should still be on the experiences that will no longer happen and the memories robbed from friends and families.

'What has been denied is the beauty of a person giving of themselves to other people, putting a smile on their face,' Linde said. 'Doing small things for other people that other people never would've done.'

People like Jean Flansburgh don't matter to those politicians holding up COVID 19 relief in Congress — like Nancy Pelosi and Mitch McConnell.

People like Jean Flansburgh don't count. 

No matter how beautiful, no matter what a Jean Flansburgh brings to her community, this woman does not exist in the minds of the pathologically obtuse (see The Rational National).

A man, Don Freix, in northeastern Wisconsin heard the story on The Rational National pod-cast, and wrote his Wisconsin State Representative, Joel Kitchens in northeastern Wisconsin. 

Mr. Freix is incenced.

So is everyone who hears the story of  Linda "Flansy" Jean Flansburgh of Black Earth, Wisconsin, with the aforementioned exception of Nancy Pelosi and Mitch McConnell.

Freix' letter to Joel Kitchens is reproduced below:

Joel,

You and your gerrymandered legislative majority have not met in session for over 180 days, nor have we seen one press release or publicized conversation with your legislative leadership from you, to address the current pandemic nor the most obvious problem individuals and every scale of business owner in the state is saddled with year after year, eliminating private insurance industry profiteering and establishing a universal health care policy.

Wisconsin woman dies, afraid to seek medical help, fearing unaffordable medical bills.  

This tragedy is on you.

This message isn't just about casting blame, workable ideas exist that yourself and your GOP colleagues refuse to admit, to consider, much less to implement.  Here are a couple suggestions from Professor Richard Wolff (if you are capable of listening through the first 5 minutes) using Switzerland as an example, what they've done to address unemployment, constituent jobs and the industry threats that you get from WMC [Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce], which essentially currently controls your majority caucus and your votes.

I'll consider addressing you as Representative, if or when I see any instance of that behavior from you in office happening.

With wary regards,

Donald Freix    
Fish Creek

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A drive through visitation for Linda "Flansy" Jean Flansburgh will be held from 3:00 pm until 6:00 pm, Friday, October 16, 2020 at Winn Cress Funeral Home, 5785 Hwy Q, Waunakee, WI  53597.  Memorials should be made directly to the family.

Every elected Wisconsin representative should pay respects, and find out what COVID 19 has wrought upon average Americans.

Working Families Eviscerated as Biden, Democrats Hold Fundraisers amid Silence on Stimulus

Horror stories from coast to coast abound as families are devastated by lack of healthcare, jobs, safe water, and food.

But that was before COVID 19.

Now, Democrats and Republicans are playing games to kill major stimulus relief.

And there is no Medicare for All, Green New Deal, Student Loan Forgiveness or any major jobs programs in the political offing in 2021.

That's because Donald Trump, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer and Joe Biden are all committed to killing progressive legislation, and for the same reasons — Wall Street, health insurance companies and other huge donor interests such as real estate. Google "Biden holds $1000,000 fundraiser" and scan the voluminous results.

Bernie Sanders and Michael Moore are warning Biden's handlers not to shaft American families again.

Their warnings fall on deaf ears.

How out-of-touch is Joe Biden? Consider healthcare.

Biden and his consultants believe that because the former senator and vice president received free, tax-payer-financed healthcare for his family through the Federal Employees Health Benefits program, it follows that the American people should not be obtain the same tax-payer-financed healthcare for their families.

Explains Joe Biden in his healthcare spot that seems to run as often in Wisconsin as Mike Lindell's My Pillow ads: "HealthCare is personal to me."

Joe Biden does not have to live with the same worries of working families. 

Biden doesn't stress about deductibles, exclusions, massive debt and bankruptcies.

He just takes in corporate America's millions and screws American families, as Democrats say, thank you.

In his ad, Biden ironically takes a dig at health insurance companies, the same companies that finance his campaign for president and every elected office he has sought, more than any other Democratic Party candidate in 2019-2020, (In These Times).

Biden's dishonest and ridiculous stance on healthcare evokes defeated Gov Scott Walker's (R-Wisconsin) infamous "I care too much about the people of this state" to allow them to enroll in Medicaid, federal money already allocated.
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COVID 19

Joe Biden has been in office for several decades so comparisons with the Trump administration should be formulated as Trump resembles Biden in considering policy stupidity in COVID 19 response.

In late Oct, Trump issued a sweeping moratorium on residential evictions through the Centers on Disease Control and Prevention.

The moratorium seems a rare bold, public health initiative. It's not and it exemplifies policy not even approaching half-measure value on a still-growing crisis.

What a massive stimulus bill should do to address this swath of policy is send federal money directly to landlords to pay for tenants in need of help. 

The subsidy could can be free, or payback without interest or whatever. This would solve the problem for the tenants, the landlords, the banks and the coming worst-yet liquidity crisis. 

In context, the moratorium is dishonest. Tenants in need are just pushing off eviction until after Jan 1 because after that they’ll be expected to come up with a pile of money for back-rent, penalties and they won’t have it.

If Trump were smart, he'd push, as he is able, a major stimulus legislation that includes a residential landlord stimulus.

But comprehensive public policy solving crises is not what Trump, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer and Joe Biden do.

They all play political games and likely Democratic Party officeholders will receive a new memo advising Dems to blame everything on the Russians.

Speaker Pelosi Wants Appeasement Policy Towards Trump — Says Feared Trump Action after 2020 Election Should Decide Democratic Nominee

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's
comments that her fears of Trump
refusing to step aside after a guessed
2020 defeat suggest a policy of
appeasement.

Pelosi Calls for Appeasement Policy to Convince Trump to Leave Office in Event of 2020 Defeat

Updated - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi expressed concern Donald Trump would refuse to vacate the presidency after the 2020 general elections.

Pelosi urged Americans to elect the Democratic Party nominee in accordance with her corporatist policy, an effort to convince Trump to voluntarily leave office after a speculated defeat, and to deter a challenge by Trump against the legitimacy of election results.

Pelosi made her comments in an interview with the New York Times, (Thrush).

Writes Glenn Thrush:

In recent weeks Ms. Pelosi has told associates that she does not automatically trust the president to respect the results of any election short of an overwhelming defeat. That view, fed by Mr. Trump’s repeated and unsubstantiated claims of Democratic voter fraud, is one of the reasons she says it is imperative not to play into the president’s hands[.]

Mollifying Trump is policy of Nancy Pelosi.

Pelosi said she can inoculate the country against Trump engaging in an act of defiance against adverse election results by electing her preferred candidates for the nomination.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi does not believe President Trump can be removed through impeachment — the only way to do it, she said this week, is to defeat him in 2020 by a margin so 'big' he cannot challenge the legitimacy of a Democratic victory.

That is something she worries about.

'We have to inoculate against that, we have to be prepared for that,' Ms. Pelosi said during an interview at the Capitol on Wednesday as she discussed her concern that Mr. Trump would not give up power voluntarily if he lost re-election by a slim margin next year.

Sitting in her office with its panoramic view of the National Mall, Ms. Pelosi — the de facto head of the Democratic Party until a presidential nominee is selected in 2020 — offered Democrats her 'coldblooded' plan for decisively ridding themselves of Mr. Trump: Do not get dragged into a protracted impeachment bid that will ultimately get crushed in the Republican-controlled Senate, and do not risk alienating the moderate voters who flocked to the party in 2018 by drifting too far to the left.

'Own the center left, own the mainstream,' Ms. Pelosi, 79, said.

Only the "big" margin of victory that Pelosi feels her preferred candidates would achieve can persuade Trump to leave the presidency.

In the Times interview, Pelosi also derided popular progressive policy initiatives that she opposes, such as Medicare for all and the Green New Deal, as "exuberances" — to be avoided because Pelosi has made her electoral assessment that the Speaker believes will result in a "big" electoral win in 2020 that would deter Trump.

It's unclear if Pelosi realizes she is advocating that fear of an unconstitutional, illegal and unprecedented action by Trump after the 2020 election should dictate major policy positions, including whom voters elect as the Democratic Party presidential nominee.

Nowhere in the Times piece is there expressed sentiment by Nancy Pelosi that the legitimate winner of the 2020 general election — regardless of who this is or what policy she or he advocates —   should assume the presidency, without respect to what Donald Trump believes or says.

This is Pelosi's first open call for an appeasement policy towards Trump.

Writes Thrush:

Few people outside Ms. Pelosi’s inner circle were aware of how worried she was that Mr. Trump would try to stop the opposition party from taking control of the House unless the Democrats’ victory was emphatic enough to be indisputable.

'If we win by four seats, by a thousand votes each, he’s not going to respect the election,' said Ms. Pelosi, recalling her thinking in the run-up to the 2018 elections.

The Times piece did not include the word, "appeasement," nor a quote from any source criticizing Pelosi's comments.

Ahistorical, unschooled and unwise, Nancy Pelosi appears inclined to damage freedoms and popular policy in an effort to mollify a fascist president.

It's not only Donald Trump who is torpedoing our most cherished democratic processes.

The 2020 general elections are not about seeking Trump's approval, consent or respect. Nancy Pelosi needs to understand this.

Ocasio-Cortez Points Way to Progressive Victory in Midwest, as Clintonites Balk

Fox News has joined the Hillary Clinton faction of the
Democratic Party in warning about Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez'
policy positions, (shown above). Isn't there a place where
Clinton and other deadenders can go to fuck off and die?

Corpratist Dems Trying to Throw Cold Water on Ocasio-Cortez

Madison, Wisconsin — U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Illinois) is a Clintonite acting in the tradition of other corporatist Dems who gave us the lunatic in the White House.

Thank you again for that, Hillary Clinton supporters.

Ever-desperate to halt progressive politics, in the week following Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez' wipe-out of a corrupt Democratic House incumbent, Duckworth offers a less-than-rigorous analysis concluding the entire Midwest will reject people-based politics because Ocasio-Cortez is "too far to the left," (The Hill).

Another Clintonite, Nancy Pelosi, preceded Duckworth's perils of political wisdom

Writes Emily Birnbaum:

Duckworth’s comments echoed those of Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who said people should not get 'carried away' over Ocasio-Cortez’s nomination.

What are Ocasio-Cortez' objectionable policy positions, all of which are available on Ocasio-Cortez' website, about which Pelosi and Duckworth warn us? Pelosi and Duckworth don't say.

But Ocasio-Cortez offers 15 detailed issue positions, so witness the horror and gasp: Medicare For All, Housing As a Human Right, A Peace Economy,  A Federal Jobs Guarantee, Gun Control / Assault Weapons Ban, Criminal Justice Reform, End Private Prisons, Immigration Justice / Abolish ICE, Solidarity with Puerto Rico, Mobilizing Against Climate Change, Clean Campaign Finance, Higher Education for All, Women's Rights, Support LGBTQIA+Support Seniors, Curb Wall Street Gambling: Restore Glass Steagall.

Duckworth did not specifically mention Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania which Pelosi and Duckworth's candidate, Hillary Clinton, lost in 2016 in the epic failure that gave the White House to Donald Trump; worth mentioning again because corporatists are not so big on recent history.

I think corporatist Democrats like losing. It's the only explanation for their action trying to take down a rare shining of light on the political horizon.
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If I were a Republican strategist running against Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisconsin), I would saturate the airwaves with ads pointing out Baldwin is a longtime Clinton supporter along with each and every member of Wisconsin Democratic congressional delegation, (538.com).

Speaking of Wisconsin, Randy Bryce, the progressive who looks to replace outgoing House Speaker Paul Ryan (R), offers a realtime test of the Duckworth-Pelosi hypothesis.

Asked about Ocasio-Cortez on UpFront with Mike Gousha, Bryce was unequivocal in his praise of Ocasio-Cortez. Reports The Capital Times:

That was a successful example of an 'everyday, working people' running for political office, said Randy Bryce. ... It’s an example he hopes to repeat.

'That’s what everyday candidates are trying to do, we’re trying to get that enthusiasm, get people to the polls,' he said. 'We’re one of them, we understand the struggles of everyday people.'

Bryce is going to win the Democratic Party nomination and the general election in November.

Ocasio-Cortez was quick to knock down the Clintonite nonsense as well:

With respect to the Senator, strong, clear advocacy for working class Americans isn’t just for the Bronx.

Sen. Sanders won:
- Michigan
- Minnesota
- Kansas
- Nebraska
- Wisconsin
- Indiana

We then lost several of those states in the general. What’s the plan to prevent a repeat? https://t.co/99K08qr7SH

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Ocasio2018) July 1, 2018

Back to present-day Wisconsin.

In the Democratic Party Primary race for governor, the same mopes who have demonstrated feckless disregard are now trying to torpedo the most fervent reformer of police-state Wisconsin.

I'll say it again: I think some Democrats like losing.

Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez likes winning.

I won a nearly impossible race with:

- Not taking💰from corporate lobbyists
- Spending time with people that “experts” say don’t vote
- Sticking to a bold, ambitious working-class agenda
- A majority-volunteer team

Sometimes, the right thing to do *is* the winning thing to do. pic.twitter.com/1fq9nbMJAS

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Ocasio2018) July 2, 2018

Pelosi's Five-Minute Speech

Here's Nancy Pelosi's speech that House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) said caused House Republicans to vote against George W. Bush's historically high-stakes legislation, the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, that if the Bush administration is to be believed, would have prevented a collapse of the economic system.

House GOP Kills Bush Bailout Bill

The House narrowly defeated the Bailout bill 228-205; as stocks plunge and everyone is wondering how ineffectual is George W. Bush that he cannot bring along his own caucus to back his own historically high-stakes legislation.

Incredibly, the GOP leadership is taking the line that their caucus suffered from hurt feelings by Speaker Nancy Pelosi's speech before the speech that "poisoned" some 12 Republicans prepared to vote for the bill but changed their minds after Pelosi spoke, though Paulson and Bush continued to urge support up until the end.

Said House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio): Speak Nancy Pelosi’s speech “poisoned” the Republican caucus and “caused a number of members we thought we could get to go south. ... I do believe that we could have gotten there today, had it not been for the partisan speech that the Speaker gave on the floor of the House.”

A Pelosi spokesman said, "You don't vote on a speech, you vote on a bill."

Maybe John McCain will suspend his campaign again and air-drop into the Capital to save the day.

Some 133 Republicans voted against the Bush-sponsored legislation.

From Andrew Sullivan: "Here's the Roll Call: Democrats backed the bailout by 140 - 95 votes, or roughly 60% - 40% (for). Republicans opposed it by 133 to 65, or 67% - 33% (against)."

Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass: