While our "Gateway to Alaska" was Anchorage, our first embarkation was in Seward, and this was the view. Extreme luxury aboard the Regent Seven Seas Mariner. Regent is owned by Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings and operates a four-ship fleet of the world's most inclusive luxury cruise experiences (so says their website). No one can argue with the view, the orchids, the chocolates, the champagne. Definitely luxurious.
The Seven Seas Mariner was the first all-suite, all-balcony ship. She is 709' with a capacity of 700 passengers and a crew of about 500. Wikipedia says her staff to guest ratio is 1:6. I know every time I turned around someone was greeting me or offering me food. The Mariner, built in Saint-Nazaire, France is about 48,000 tons, has a draught of 21 feet (6.4 m), and does 20 knots (37 km/h/ 23 mph).
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It was kind of painful for me driving through the Chugach National Forest and Kenai Fjords National Park and not being able to stop. We were on a bus being taken by the cruise company from Anchorage to Seward. . . so we had to keep to a schedule. Alaska is a big place and it takes a lot of time to see it all. So there will be another trip. Next trip to Alaska I want to spend more time around Seward exploring Aialik Bay.
The entire cruise the upper decks were mine for the most part. No one seemed to want to deal with the wind or cool air. I loved it. I was mesmerized by the June beauty of Seward, Alaska, the ship, her flags, it was all very special. Add to all of that the staff had a cookout going down by the bar making Alaskan favorites (halibut, sea bass, etc), or pretty much anything you could ever want. Me? I love chocolate. I had plenty of desserts.
For most of the cruise, including the first day, there were few sunbathers. It was cool. Kind of like the coldest day you would ever expect to experience in Central Florida. 55°-60° and breezy with brilliant sunshine. The locals said all this sunshine was very unusual. Global warming.
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I told the butler that I was mostly vegetarian and liked lots of water, nuts, cheese, and juice. He kept the refrigerator stocked with Clear Alaskan Glacial Water, which I saved and brought home. It pretty much tastes like any other water but its a really nice package. The water comes from a glacial lake near Anchorage—Eklutna Lake. The lake is one of Alaska's natural wonders, formed in the melt and retreat of the great North American ice sheet at the beginning of the Holocene period 10,000 years ago.
The great Eklutna Glacier carved Eklutna Valley as it retreated, leaving horizontal scarring on rock formations as evidence of its passing. Glacial and freshwater streams flowing into the valley created the 13 km-long lake now in the protected Chugach National Forest. The forest is nearly 7 million acres or about 10,800 miles² (27,958 km²). In addition to the water bottling plant there are some oil, gas, and mining operations allowed in the National Forest. This is Alaska after all. We had to expect some disrespect for the natural beauty of the place just based on their politics.
I kept expecting Alaskans to be like the caricature that we know from Sarah Palin and her clan of rednecks: Brash, tacky, and ignorant. I did not find that with the Alaskans I met. They were warm, pleasant, and decent people. It was a nice surprise and some testament to the ridiculousness of the TV shows that on Discovery and other networks that relentlessly highlight only the outrageous and anti-social Alaskans that are their stars.
Seward is the terminus of the Alaskan Railroad and one of the top 10 (in dollars) port cities in America. I'm not sure what all those pipes were running along the breakwater but they appear to be grain or fuel transport pipes for cargo ships which frequent the port.
Can You See Climate Change?
On this June day it was a cloudless skies with blustery conditions. The climate around Seward is generally damp and cool. Seward has, depending on the isotherm, a subpolar oceanic climate (Köppen Cfc) or a subarctic climate (Köppen Dfc), and lies just within the subpolar/subarctic zone at 60° N, with moderate temperatures for Alaska, due to its location along the Gulf of Alaska coast, and high levels of precipitation (73 inches/year; 1862 mm). We heard frequently how unusual it was to have cloudless skies and relatively warm temperatures in the 60°s (18° C).
The breakwater at Seward Harbor. Interesting to note that this area was devastated in the M9.2 Great Alaskan Earthquake of March 27, 1964 by shaking and a local tsunami.
Even on the longest day of the year (June 22), the sun only reaches an elevation of about 53° thus the ship casts a long shadow across Resurrection Bay as we depart.
We've Read. . .
and you should pay close attention too, if you think you might ever get sick, old, or become disabled. Congress is attempting to remove the Medicaid entitlement
and you should pay close attention too, if you think you might ever get sick, old, or become disabled. Congress is attempting to remove the Medicaid entitlement
The first hints of an uncertain future for the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS came last year, when Donald Trump's presidential campaign refused to meet with advocates for people living with HIV, said Scott Schoettes, a member of the council since 2014.
That unease was magnified on Inauguration Day in January, when an official White House website for the Office of National AIDS Policy vanished, Schoettes said.
That unease was magnified on Inauguration Day in January, when an official White House website for the Office of National AIDS Policy vanished, Schoettes said.
Senate Trumpcare Bill Page 30. This essentially subsidizes the bonuses of Health Insurance Executives
Less than six months later, Schoettes said those initial reservations had given way to full-blown frustration over a lack of dialogue with or caring from Trump administration officials about issues relating to HIV or AIDS.
Last week, he and five others announced they were quitting the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS, also known as PACHA. According to Schoettes, the last straw — or “more like a two-by-four than a straw” — had come in May, after the Republican-dominated House passed the American Health Care Act, which he said would have “devastating” effects on those living with HIV.
Senate Trumpcare Bill. This clause means higher costs before your insurance kicks in, that is to say, higher deductibles. This essentially codifies higher deductibles than under the ACA.
One doesn't have to know a lot about policy to know that cutting health care by $1 trillion means a lot more people won't have it. Even President Trump seems to have noticed that. He went from defending the plan with some of his trademark stream-of-consciousness braggadocio — it's “getting better and better and better, and it's gotten really good, and a lot of people are liking it a lot,” he told reporters in April — to now deciding that it was actually “mean” all along.
Senate Trumpcare Bill Page 52-53. This scheme imposes per capita caps on Medicaid (that is to say it cuts funding).
You just can't cut taxes the way Republicans want and have “insurance for everybody” like Trump promised. Heck, you can't even have cheaper insurance. On an apples-to-apples basis, the House Republican plan, at least, would probably increase premiums and deductibles, according to the center-left Brookings Institution and the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation. To the extent that people would pay less, it would only be because they were getting less and people who needed more had been priced out of the market. None of this is going to change in the Senate version unless the GOP changes its commitment to cutting taxes for the rich.
Senate Trumpcare Bill Page 86. This scheme allows states to convert Medicaid to a block grant program (that is to say it cuts funding).
So I guess that makes it two things we know about the Senate GOP's health-care plan: they want to pass it next week, and it will be something Trump thinks is mean.
Beware of what we don't know. Likely the Senate also wants to change Medicaid from an entitlement into something much less generous and this will affect 70,000,000 Americans, many of them elderly and in nursing homes. It might also be the first step toward doing the same thing to Medicare.
The “health-care bill” that Republicans are trying to pass in the Senate, like the one approved by the GOP majority in the House, isn’t really about health care at all. It’s the first step in a massive redistribution of wealth from struggling wage-earners to the rich — a theft of historic proportions.
Is the Senate version less “mean” than the House bill, to use President Trump’s description of that earlier effort? Not really. Does the new bill have the “heart” that Trump demanded? No, it doesn’t. The devil is not in the details, it’s in the big picture.
Senate Trumpcare Bill Page 41. They revoke the essential health benefits
The “health-care bill” that Republicans are trying to pass in the Senate, like the one approved by the GOP majority in the House, isn’t really about health care at all. It’s the first step in a massive redistribution of wealth from struggling wage-earners to the rich — a theft of historic proportions.
Is the Senate version less “mean” than the House bill, to use President Trump’s description of that earlier effort? Not really. Does the new bill have the “heart” that Trump demanded? No, it doesn’t. The devil is not in the details, it’s in the big picture.
Senate Trumpcare Bill Page 134. Here is your age tax. House version started the Age Tax in 2018, Senate waits until 2019
Fundamentally, what Republicans in both chambers want to do is cut nearly $1 trillion over the next decade from the Medicaid program, which serves almost 70 million people. Medicaid provides health care not just for the indigent and disabled but also for the working poor — low-wage employees who cannot afford health insurance, even the plans offered through their jobs.
Additionally, about 20 percent of Medicaid spending goes to provide nursing home care, including for middle-class seniors whose savings have been exhausted — a situation almost any of us might confront. Roughly two-thirds of those in nursing homes have their care paid by Medicaid.
Senate Trumpcare Bill Page 135. This allows states to let insurance companies charge you more because of a pre-existing condition.
Why would Republicans want to slash this vital program so severely? You will hear a lot of self-righteous huffing and puffing about the need for entitlement reform, but the GOP’s intention is not to use the savings to pay down the national debt. Instead, slashing Medicaid spending creates fiscal headroom for what is euphemistically being called “tax reform” — a soon-to-come package of huge tax cuts favoring the wealthy.
Neither the House nor the Senate bill fully dismantles the scaffolding of Obamacare; rather, they allow the states to do most of the dirty work. Philosophically, Republican majorities in both chambers want to erase the central concept that the ACA established: that health care is a fundamental right, not a privilege depending on one’s income.
Senate Trumpcare Bill. This section cuts $4 billion from the Prevention and Public Health Fund. That's a cruel joke on those who need preventive care and immunizations.
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