(Drew Sheneman via GoComics.com — click link to enlarge)
Mad props to Tim Egan in the NYTimes:
Just now, a cell of several hundred people has been dispatched into the American summer, to picnics, town halls, radio stations, hospitals and Little League playing fields, with a mission to derail the economic recovery and drum up support for sabotaging federal law. They’re not terrorists, nor are they agents of a foreign government. This is your United States Congress, the Republican House, on recess for the next five weeks.
They even have a master plan, a 31-page kit put together by the House Republican Conference, for every member to follow while back home with the folks. It’s called “Fighting Washington for all Americans,” and includes a prototype op-ed piece, with a political version of the line usually reserved for dumping lovers: “This isn’t about me. It’s about you.”…
And what if I have a child with cancer, and the insurance company plans to dump him if Republicans stop Obamacare in its tracks? Can I attend? Or what if I’m counting on buying into the new health care exchanges in my state, saving hundreds of dollars on my insurance bill?
The kit has an answer: planting supporters, with prescreened softball questions, will ensure that such things never get asked. More important, this tactic will assure that any meeting with the dreaded public will go “in the direction that is most beneficial to the member,” as the blueprint states.
I thought this wasn’t about you.
Oh, and Republicans should be sure to “engage with all demographics,” the memo insists. It’s very specific about what that means: Asians, Latinos and women. Blacks aren’t mentioned. Lost cause. But millennials are included, because nothing works with young people like inauthenticity….
Also worth reading, Jonathan Cohn in TNR with “Six Reasons Hipsters Will Bite on Obamacare“.
***********
What’s on the Friday doc dump agenda for the end of another work week?
Amir Khalid
Saboteurs.
How is chucking the sabot into the implementation of laws passed by Congress not a treasonous act by these Congresspeople?
OzarkHillbilly
I suppose sleep is too much to ask for? Been awake since 11 last night. Worked in the heat (87 is heat???) yesterday and the charley horses just wouldn’t let up. On the good side, I am not working today as the house I am building has gotten as far as I can take it before I head for MN (to visit my sis) on Sat morning. Gonna be there for a week, no particular agenda other then spend time with her and her’s.
Got plenty to do before I go tho, not least of which is to put up another batch of tomatoes. Thinking of making tomato sauce…. Any one got a good recipe?
OzarkHillbilly
Had to laugh at the comic above. The list of side effects sounds like everything afflicting the GOP. Looks like the ACA is working as intended and it hasn’t even been fully implemented yet.
WereBear
Ya know, if I believed everything Faux News told me, I’d be upset and rowdy and voting for Republicans.
But Faux News lies, constantly and ridiculously and blatantly. No one can believe a word they say… except the other thing Faux News does is stroke insecurities and promote a dysfunctional worldview and tell their viewers how RIGHT they are about everything.
Helluva drug.
mai naem
I like the use of the term “cell” – “cell of a hundred people.” – as in terrorist cell. I hope the Obama people put the Obama admin hope and change stamp on all the popular parts of the bill like the Bushies did with the tax rebates and Medicare Part D.
raven
One month until football. The Dawgs are ranked 5th but I didn’t get the Clemson tickets I ordered which throws my master financial plan out the door! Woof Woof!
NotMax
Hey, if it worked for Britney Spears…
And no agenda (or agendum, for that matter); just winging it as usual.
BillinGlendaleCA
They’ll talk about fighting Washington, and in the next breath tell the voters to vote for them to keep them there.
mai naem
@WereBear: I have a friend whose elderly slightly demented mom lives in an assisted living facility. She says her mom, a retired teacher, used to be a fairly pleasant woman but the combination of dementia and watching Fox News 24/7 has turned her into a nasty bitter old woman. When she visits her mom she changed the channel to Animal Planet or some such channel so that her mom isn’t so angry and it takes her mom a while to figure out how to switch the channel back to Fox.
Anne Laurie
@Amir Khalid:Thanks. I can correct my spelling errors, but unfortunately correcting the GOP is well above my pay grade!
@OzarkHillbilly: Lazy person’s tomato preservation: Slow-roasted tomatoes. Works with tomatoes of any size — I first heard about them with Smitten Kitchen’s cherry tomato recipe. Just cut them into chunks, slather on the garlic & olive oil, stick ’em in a warm oven and check every so often until you decide they’re done enough. If I have more than we’ll eat in the next few days, I slip off most of the skins & freeze the “pulp” in baggies.
P.S. I love yellow & orange tomatoes, and use lemon basil when I’m cooking those down.
OzarkHillbilly
From the Guardian, the Painted Desert has nothing on China’s rainbow mountains. Hard to believe the pics are real.
WereBear
I have personally seen, and heard of, this combination so freakin’ often that I think it should be studied by science.
Which comes first? Could Fox News, with its reality distortion field, undermine a fragile grip and send the person into crazy-land?
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: This is right up the road from NonMax!
OzarkHillbilly
@Anne Laurie:
I did that last year with my grape and yellow pear tomas and I have a bunch more I am going to do today as well as the canning. Yum, yum…
David Koch
“Obamacare lowers insurance costs and guarantees coverage for pre-existing conditions.”
That’s a concise message. Dems should repeat this every hour on the hour for the next 5 years.
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: Beautiful. I am really missing the mountains. I used to head west at least once every other year, but I have fallen off the pace here of late. Next year…..
NotMax
@raven
Nice shot. Hadn’t seen that one before.
While on the subject of geographical oddities, how about all those pink lakes?
NotMax
@NotMax
Oh, and on Maui we also have the JFK rock formation.
Patricia Kayden
Well, I’m glad that Repubs consider Blacks to be a “lost cause”. After their veneration of Zimmerman, this should be obvious.
raven
@NotMax: After the sunrise we took the trail down the valley. We went for a while and really enjoyed it but we ran out of gas and turned back. We went a couple of hundred yards and ran into a couple who excitedly asked “did you go to the cinder cones”? We were just puzzled and said “I guess”. We drove down the the next overlook and saw that. OOOOOO, that’s what they were talking about. We must have walked right up to the edge of one and not know it! Haole’s to da max!
Patricia Kayden
@BillinGlendaleCA: To continue to fight Washington!
OzarkHillbilly
@NotMax:
That just looks wrong in so many ways.
raven
@NotMax: And JAWS!
Ben Cisco
Wrong on both counts.
NotMax
@raven
Cowabunga, dude.
Matt McIrvin
@BillinGlendaleCA: Back when Republicans controlled all three branches of government, I wondered if it was possible to remain the anti-government party indefinitely when you were the government. Someone pointed out that that was basically the rhetorical strategy of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union: they were always and forever the revolutionary party. It served them for a while.
c u n d gulag
WHADATHUNKIT?
The Republicans themselves are the “Fifth Columnist’s” they always warned us about, intent on destroying America.
It’s almost like Agatha Christie wrote a political “who done it.”
Well done, old chaps!
But you’re not done yet.
And you won’t be, until it’s President Cruz, in the Oval Office, surrounded by smiling and smirking Republican House and Senate majority leaders, five Conservative Supreme Court Justices, with a pen, and a bill.
NotMax
Vindication!
Science confirms why I prefer my salsa sans cilantro.
aimai
@mai naem: People are very susceptible to stuff they hear without really being critical about–like background noise. And I hate to say it but as my relatives get older they get both more credulous, and more easily alarmed. Thank g-d my parents aren’t tv watchers or radio listeners and still get most of their news from left wing sites but I can always tell when my mother has been reading the Huffington Post because she has picked up some terrible memes and themes which I then have to debunk.
Omnes Omnibus
@c u n d gulag:
Just five? One might become an apostate; they want 7 or 8 plus a tame libertarian or two for diversity.
WereBear
Their ironically named “wellness” section is quite whacked. The few good ideas are drowned in slop.
Omnes Omnibus
@aimai: My mom was a huge fan of the Ed Show, but now subsists on MHP and Rachel Maddow. Dad doesn’t do tv news. I am lucky, I guess.
IowaOldLady
My lifelong Democrat mother wound up believing Bill Clinton put a hit on Vince Foster.
Baud
@IowaOldLady:
I’ve always wondered what the Clinton years would have been like if we had had blogs then.
Ramalama
Or you could say, “Angry theatrical devices” to Tim Egan…
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@NotMax: While on the subject of geographical oddities, how about all those pink lakes?
To those of us living in the south San Fransisco bay area that is a familiar sight in the salt ponds.
Southern Beale
So now my dumbass Tea Party neighbor, who still seems incapable of understanding the difference between his personal beef and the city’s need for stomwater regulations, is telling me his real problem is that he thinks his HOA dues should be tax deductible.
HUH?!
What. A. Moron.
MomSense
The article linked above at the New Republic is interesting, too. It is so frustrating the way people frame the choice whether or not to purchase health care. The choice is often portrayed as the $100 a month premium vs. the $95 per year fine for not purchasing insurance.
If you are a young woman who buys birth control regularly–you are talking $40 – $65 a month for birth control pills (assuming she wisely decided not to simply go with the aspirin between the knees method). There are all kinds of other procedures and medications that young people require that would change the calculation. When I talk to people in this age category, they definitely want health care because they have ended up in the walk in clinic or ER for strep throat and it costs at least what a year’s worth of premiums would cost. Believe it or not but some of the youngs even wear glasses or contacts and those costs add up.
Plus, young people are not exactly newbies to the whole idea of insurance. Many of them have been dealing with car insurance.
rikyrah
it’s economic treason against this country – the GOP has been doing it since January 20, 2009
MrSnrub
Wrapping up the work week, and then flying to San Diego tomorrow morning for a long awaited vacation.
greennotGreen
What really riles* me about Republicans and their alliance with the “Pro Life” movement is that they want all conceived babies to be born (tell that to the Great Abortionist since about a third of conceptions end in spontaneous, aka “act of God” abortions,) but then they don’t want universal health care. I guess they just want the babies to die later.
My nephew has cystic fibrosis. It’s genetic. He was born with it. We don’t know where it comes from in our family, and there wasn’t a genetic test for it when he was born, anyway. He hasn’t found a job since graduating for college, but because of Obamacare he’s still on my brother-in-law’s insurance. If he reaches 26 before finding a job, he’ll still be able to get insurance because of the no-pre-existing conditions exclusion part of Obamacare, and, because of Obamacare, he should be able to find something affordable on the insurance exchanges.
Without insurance the options are 1)the family goes bankrupt trying to pay for his care, or 2)he dies. Which option do the Republicans propose?
*euphemism for “makes me crazy with red-hot hate”
Elizabelle
@WereBear:
I would be interested in seeing a controlled research study of dementia and Fox News watching.
A lot of nursing homes do not permit Fox News on the tellies; from sad experience, it makes their residents more difficult to deal with.
boatboy_srq
@Amir Khalid: I keep asking that, and nobody (yet) has a good answer. I keep thinking that the Congressional Teahadists really have gone Galt – and nobody is discussing it in those terms.
boatboy_srq
@WereBear: Considering Murdoch can’t seem to remember what he told Parliament and/or his investors week to week, it certainly fits Newscorp as a business strategy. Explains some of their movies, too.
karen
@greennotGreen:
I had a boyfriend with CF in the 80s and he lived to be 27. Nasty disease. Hopefully the life expectancy is better now but with the multiple hospital stays, it could bankrupt someone without insurance very quickly.
Today the vet is coming to my apartment to check out Contessakitty’s tummy because it felt kind of lumpy to me and I want to make sure that it’s not the beginning of a problem. Maybe someday we’ll have insurance for pets where pre-existing conditions won’t matter.
Villago Delenda Est
@WereBear:
Woo out the gazoo, eh?
A lot of that going around.
Villago Delenda Est
@Southern Beale:
No.
He’s a moran, or a maroon.
Actual morons are not that fucking stupid.
gelfling545
One big reason a lot of the younger folks may buy into the insurance is simply that while they may not see the advantage (although I have yet to meet any who don’t) their parents, many of whom have spent sleepless nights worrying about what could happen if (when) illness or injury strikes will be lobbying strongly for the purchase and possibly even paying for it. Both of my kids had various periods of time without health insurance & I was never at ease. If there had been any affordable way to buy it for them, I would have.
mai naem
@MomSense: Yes, yes, yes. Every time I hear about Obamacare premiums being more expensive, well, duh, it includes a lot of free routine check up stuff. I know people whose insurance don’t cover basic labs. Labs are freaking expensive. Just including some basic lab work would be worth higher rates.
boatboy_srq
@Villago Delenda Est: WIN.
MomSense
@mai naem:
I’m just sick of people portraying young adults as if they are all totally hapless, irrational, etc. Those portrayals just don’t reflect most of the young people I know.
Labs are expensive!! Inhalers are expensive. Allergy meds–I mean young people are not idiots!
Omnes Omnibus
@MomSense: Come on, everyone is a passive lump to be acted upon except the privileged few who are active actors who actively act.
cleek
this is extremely insensitive to the work-challenged among us.
fight the dominant job-defines-life paradigm! accept the differently-occupied!
/orwhatevah
Central Planning
@mai naem:
If it’s one of those new-fangled talk boxes, perhaps she can lock out the fox news channel and put a passcode on it to prevent people from turning it back on.
I’ve done that in hotel rooms. Not sure if they have a way to reset the codes :D
nastybrutishntall
Media Lexical Update: “hipster” is what old people call used to call “youngster”, “whippersnapper” or “get-off-my-lawn-you”. #weareallhipstersnow
Ted & Hellen
Can we take just a moment away from blaming all the ills of ACA on Republican lying and Fox News to note that they are simply exploiting the huge information vacuum made possible by the fact that Obama’s messaging and education efforts in that regard SUCK THE MAJOR DONKEY DICK?
Why? I do not know, but it’s a constant problem and at some point an incredulous person has to wonder why BO’s team is always, always behind the curve on matters like this.
I mean, WHO COULD HAVE POSSIBLY KNOWN the Repukes would try to undermine ACA. So where has the all hands on deck, massive pro-ACA educational campaign been the last three/four years? I do not know, can someone tell me?
Paul in KY
@OzarkHillbilly: Wow. Gives you a better idea about why the Chinese are so smug about China being prettiest place on Earth & best place to live, etc.
Paul in KY
@Ted & Hellen: You do have a point there, sad to say.
cokane
Cohn’s article has some of the worst copy editing I’ve seen. No offense, but TNR did him a huge disservice.
JGabriel
Tim Egan:
Much as I like most of Tim Egan’s work, I’m afraid we fundamentally disagree on the defintion of terrorist.
.
Scamp Dog
@OzarkHillbilly: That is going on my list of “places I need to visit”. Wow!
Pogonip
@Elizabelle: That’s interesting. Can you point me to an article about it? (“We have 24-hour nursing care and a completely Fox-free environment! Visit your loved ones without having to tolerate trashy-looking blondes, gold-selling scams, and ranting Republican politicians!”)
When my mom developed mild dementia, she gave up Fox; I think she can no longer follow what they’re saying. She’s probably better off.
Pogonip
P.S. I wonder how much money Fox spends to make the Foxbots look that cheap?
lojasmo
@OzarkHillbilly:
Two weeks from today, I fly to Seattle to pick up a car I bought, then to Portland to get A friend, then we’re driving back to MN taking mostly back roads through Or, WA ID, MT, WY and SD (we’ll take I 90 from the black hills to MN. Looking forward to the drive