Kurt's Thoughts

Two days ago, Republicans in Congress voted to pass the American Healthcare Act – an insane piece of legislation that has only two purposes:  Spite & power.

• Not a a single healthcare organization supports it. 
• The House Oversight Committee never got the chance to study it and provide estimates on it’s impact.
• Not a single Democrat voted for it.
• AHCA effectively cuts healthcare from 24 million citizens – especially those with pre-existing conditions who desperately need it.

Documented here (https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/115-2017/h256) the inhumane suffering & loss of life over the next several years will be staggering.  For an idea of the impact this will have, read this article:

• The Republicans who voted for this abomination must be held accountable
  https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2017/05/04/every-republican-who-voted-for-this-abomination-must-be-held-accountable/

So what are you going to do about it?

I’ll make it simple for you:

Almost every Republican voted for the bill.  If your Congressman is Republican, it’s likely he or she wanted to protect their own jobs & voted AGAINST the American people’s interests, believing you, their constituents, wouldn’t notice their actions when they run for reelection in 2018.

1. AGAIN, ALMOST EVERY REPUBLICAN IN THE HOUSE VOTED TO PASS IT. (Click here for the House vote tally – the following Republicans did NOT vote for the AHCA)
1. Biggs, Andy, AZ 5^th
2. Coffman, Mike, CO 6^th
3. Massie, Thomas, KY 4^th
4. LoBiondo, Frank, NJ 2^nd
5. Smith, Chris, NJ 4^th
6. Lance, Leonard, NJ 7^th
7. Katko, John, NY 24^th
8. Jones, Walter, NC 3^rd
9. Turner, Michael, OH 10^th
10. Joyce, David, OH 14^th
11. Costello, Ryan, PA 6^th
12. Meehan, Patrick, PA 7^th
13. Dent, Charles, PA 15^th
14. Hurd, Will, TX 23^rd
15. Comstock, Barbara, VA 10^th
16. Herrera Beutler, Jaime, WA 3^rd
17. Reichert, David, WA 8^th
18. Ros-Lehtinen, Ileana, FL 27th
19. Donovan Jr., Daniel, NY 11th
20. Fitzpatrick, Brian, PA 8th
21. Newhouse, Dan, WA 4th
    (Abstained)
2. YOUR CONGRESSMAN IS LISTED HERE.
   (Figure out who your Congressman is, if you don’t know. If they were Republican, they voted against public interests. Click here to look them up.) 
3. GET REGISTERED TO VOTE.
   (Prepare for the next Congressional election. Make your vote count. Click here to get registered.)
4. VOTE & ENCOURAGE OTHERS. (November 2018 is the next Congressional election. Voting is the single most impactful action you can take. Click here to find out when & where the next election will be in your location.)

I started nostalgically searching for my favorite pinball game of all time, back in college, and OMG, I FOUND IT.  It was called “Slugfest Baseball” and this pinball game was amazing. I must have plugged 1000’s of dollars into that game – all in quarters.

PITCHING: It would pitch a pinball to you that you had to hit with a flipper with 4 different pitches: Fastball, curveball, change up, & sinker. The fastball & change up are self explanatory, but the sinker put backspin on the ball so it’d slow down right before it hit you. And the curveball would go off to the side using MAGNETS under the game top.

HITTING: Where you hit the ball made a big difference. You had to hit the highlighted sensors in the back for a single, double or triple, otherwise, it’d be an out. If the ball came back, naturally it was a strike. But if you were fast, you could rapidly pound the ‘steal’ button with a man on base and steal with the leading runner.

HOMERUNS: The big exciting moment came when the clean up hitter came up: An actual ramp would lift out of the game top for the duration of your at-bat. If you hit the ball up the ramp with enough velocity, it’d leap into the air and actually hit the upper deck above the sensors – which was a home run.

RUNS=CARDS: For every 5 runs you made, or a Grand Slam, you could actually get a real baseball card given to you. There was a dispenser under the game that would drop your baseball cards like little rewards for doing well. I actually got a Chipper Jones rookie card from the machine.

AMBIANCE: The game’s ambiance was fantastic. It played organ music and had a crowd noise. It had the voice of an umpire calling the balls & strikes, and when you hit it out of the park on a home run, the lights would turn off on the game and explode in a ridiculous celebration of the hit.

TWO PLAYER: The game could be played two player. One person could select from the 4 pitches and the other player would have to hit, and you’d swap after 3 outs. People used to gather around the game to watch people play. I skipped classes in college to finish games until the 9th inning. We must have played that machine into the ground.

…this game is probably the last remaining arcade game I’d buy if I had the room in our house.

Did you know that Matt Harding did another “Where the hell is Matt?” video compilation at the end of 2016?

Where the Heck is Matt? 2016

In case you’re not familiar with Matt Harding, he’s been a source of happiness for me over the past 10-15 years.  So much so that I bought one of his orange t-shirts.

Just start at 2005 and keep watching:

Where the Hell is Matt? 2005

Where the Hell is Matt? 2006

Where the Hell is Matt? 2008

Where the Hell is Matt? 2012