Hey Boston-area Balloon Juice folk. Tomorrow, Tuesday, Nov. 13, at 7 p.m., Ta-Nehisi Coates will be talking with MSNBC host Chris Hayes, author of the highly recommended (by me!) Twilight of the Elites. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the event is titled “The 2012 Election and the Twilight of the Elites.”
Continue below the fold for more details and a truly delightful if NS For every Workspace artist’s wink at Chris’s work.
It’ll all be happening at MIT’s Simmons Hall, W79 in TechSpeak, 7-8:30, free and open to the public. Simmons Hall is on Vassar Street in Cambridge, opposite the MIT playing fields. Interactive map here.
Event description:
In his new book, Twilight Of The Elites, journalist and MSNBC host Chris Hayes poses a challenge with special resonance for the MIT community — Are the institutions which foster America’s leadership class working as intended? Hayes’ book covers ground as diverse as education, the financial sector, our political system and the Catholic church in an attempt to understand whether the American elite truly upholds the values of competition and meritocracy which it claims to espouse. His conclusions are troubling.
Join Chris Hayes in conversation with Atlantic Senior Editor and Dr. Martin Luther King Visiting Scholar Ta-Nehisi Coates on Tuesday November 13 at Simmons Hall for an election year discussion on the future of our country and an assessment of its institutions.
Should be fun.
Image: Cornelisz. van Haarlem, Fall of the Titans (alt: Fall of Satan), c. 1588
Litlebritdifrnt
Sorry to go OT son soon but this is the e-mail that Broadwell sent to Kelly in Florida
What is she 14? I mean seriously? A 60 year old general who looks like a nerd is worth threatening your friends over? Really? Great Flying Spaghetti Monster on a Moped. She does know that there are like a brazillion single guys in the known universe right? Damn. How stupid does one have to be.
different-church-lady
Hmmm… gonna mull this one over.
About 13 years ago I was recording an architectural pow-wow at MIT. They had six hot shot international architects in the same room spending 3 days re-envisioning the campus. (Gehry is the only one I can remember.) They had a big wooden model of every building on the campus in front of them. Can’t remember which one of them was in the middle of a presentation when he said, “Oh, and we’ve really got to somehow convince people to start naming the buildings instead of just numbering them.”
hilts
OT
I completely disagree with this Slate commentary and support any Obama supporter’s right to gloat. I just found the piece very amusing.
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2012/11/liberal_schadenfreude_obama_s_win_brings_out_too_mean_gloating_on_social.html?wpisrc=most_viral
Yutsano
Are you allowed to have this much fun at your job? :)
Jerzy Russian
@hilts:
Normally I would agree with the author of that linked piece. However, given all of the “Sore-Loserman” stickers after 2000, the purple band-aids, the bullshit about the birth certificate, the racism, the “rape” candidates, and so on, I am happy to gloat a bit longer.
techno
@Litlebritdifrnt:
Hey, a woman acting like a 14-year-old over some guy she fell in love with is CUTE! You never had something like this happen to you? Too bad-it IS fun (for about six months.)
trollhattan
@Litlebritdifrnt:
Admittedly, as sung by Ronnie and produced by Phil Spector, it might could be a ’60s hit single.
? Martin
@different-church-lady: Gehry makes shit buildings. They’re definitely interesting to look at, but they are engineered like shit. I know of what I speak – I work in one. A pretty building is worthless if their foundations suck, they leak, their air quality is crap, and so on.
Amir Khalid
Wow. The McAfee antivirus guy is wanted in Belize on suspicion of murder.
? Martin
@Amir Khalid: You need to read Wired to get the details. One of their reporters has been on the phone with him since the warrant was issued.
Someone needs some meds.
SteveinSC
@different-church-lady: 10-250 and out.
Roger Moore
@? Martin:
Not all of how the building turns out is on the architect. Bad execution by the builder can ruin a good design. I’ve been very impressed by the two Gehry buildings I know the most about, Disney Hall and the Geffen Contemporary (though the Geffen is a remodel rather than a ground up design).
dm
@different-church-lady: how would that help you find the buildings (and the rooms in them) on campus? Is the Fnord Building on the east side or the west side of campus? Does knowing where the Frobozz Building is help you find it?
Plus 5 is easier to spell than Fnord.
some guy
By Zachary A. Goldfarb, Updated: Monday, November 12, 8:48 PM
NOBODY saw that coming
scav
@? Martin: Ditto, with the key in the past tense. Design not suited for purpose, more to enhace the Gehryishness of the whole. Good to learn they’re a few decent ones. Most remind me of nothing so much as an architectural Izod alligator: recognizable so that everyone could notice you’d hired Gehry. Yes, I’m archaic and antediluvian: I prefer my buildings functional as well as uniquely conceptual.
Mnemosyne
@some guy:
What, that the paranoids who are convinced for no reason that Obama is going to kill Social Security would start acting on their delusion?
Sorry, I saw that coming a mile away.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@hilts:
Katherine Goldstein to one of those fools who believes that if we just act nice enough toward the Republicans then they’ll certainly come around.
The tell is this quote from her drivelicious screed:
Ms. Goldstein could make nice to the Republicans all day long and they’d reward her by fucking her in the ass and then wiping their dicks off on her drapes.
Mnemosyne
Is there a particular reason why all of my comments are going into moderation? I haven’t changed my nym or e-mail address.
Corner Stone
@Mnemosyne: Probably because you are a congenitally inveterate liar. And a horrible excuse for a human being.
Tell us all again how Texas gets more funds from the federal govt than they contribute. Please.
Johnny Coelacanth
@some guy: Speaking of which, Spatula The Pure has been mighty quiet since the election.
Johnny Coelacanth
“My vote for Kerry was the first I’d ever cast, and boy did losing hurt. But there was no one to around to rub my face in my own misery.”
Shorter Katherine Goldstein: “I hadn’t discovered the internet in 2004.”
Higgs Boson's Mate
@Johnny Coelacanth:
Oh he’s been around. For obvious reasons he’s had to become the Troll of a Thousand Nyms.
Corner Stone
@some guy: You should be careful. They have identified at least “one regular commenter” who has been discussing this outcome.
There’s not a lot of flexibility allowed in the comments before the gang pile.
TooManyJens
Speaking of Chris Hayes, I’ve been giggling about this (and about the epic ribbing he’s taking about it on Twitter) all evening:
http://www.nationalenquirer.com/celebrity/cher-married-tv-nerd
MikeJ
If you want to redesign MIT, all you need is the Infocom classic The Lurking Horror.
Johnny Coelacanth
“mobilizing to oppose concessions they fear he could make on Medicare and Social Security…” even though the President has made no public pronouncements about these hypothetical concessions. I did see some comments from David Axelrod about how it “might” be possible to increase tax revenue without raising top marginal tax rates, and Lindsey Graham was urging the President to follow the advice of the catfood commission. Totally proves HE SOLD US OUT!
Sad But True
wow. john stewart is breaking up with mike huckabee on tv right now. basically calling him out on his party’s racism and on the religious dogwhistling.
Stacy
@Sad But True:
I was just about to post on this. Stewart is really, really angry with the Republicans blaming their election loss on the “takers” and “lazy people.”
Huckabee’s responses are lame.
some guy
@Corner Stone:
oh don’t worry, half the commenters in this very thread piled on when I had the temerity to suggest that Obama’s past support for the Diamond-Orzag plan to “not slash…” Social Security and Medicare was unpossible, and that the very idea that President Kill List would countenance cuts to these programs was not only unpossible, but double plus heresy.
Amir Khalid
@Higgs Boson’s Mate:
He has volunteered that his current nym is Ted & Hellen, probably because people weren’t recognising his special genius quickly enough o suit him.
some guy
@Johnny Coelacanth:
and yet here we are, with Saunders and Labor gearing up to fight cuts that are unpossible. those earlier claims such a Grand Bargain would never occur are inoperative then,
I guess ?
some guy
@Johnny Coelacanth:
and yet here we are, with Saunders and Labor gearing up to fight cuts that are unpossible. those earlier claims such a Grand Bargain would never occur are inoperative then,
I guess ?
Mnemosyne
@some guy:
Yes, yes, you’re a special snowflake because you can read and interpret Obama’s body language when he talks about Social Security but you can’t successfully read or interpret the reports issued by the Social Security Administration about what happens to benefits after 2038. Did you manage to find that “75 percent of benefits” part yet, or do I need to Google it for you again?
Johnny Coelacanth
Yes, @some guy: Oh, they’re possible, I suppose. Unlikely, I imagine. If the President gives lip service to any such concessions I’ll be calling the White House switchboard and writing my congressional delegation but I’m not going to twist my purity panties into a knot on the basis of speculative Village fiction. YMMV.
mainmati
Is the Coates-Hayes discussion a webinar? If not, why not? (I realize you don’t control this, just thought I’d ask.) More of these things should be online events through Adobe Connect (preferably) or GoToMeeting. There are other technologies. Otherwise, what’s the point of telling people on the blog about it? I would imagine only a small fraction could attend at MIT meeting in person. Get with the 21st century MIT.
some guy
@Mnemosyne:
nice blowing smoke.
I guess all your earlier denials such a scenario could EVER OCCUR are also inoperative? you truly are a useful idiot, aren’t you?
some guy
@Mnemosyne:
nice blowing smoke.
I guess all your earlier denials such a scenario could EVER OCCUR are also inoperative? you truly are a useful idiot, aren’t you?
some guy
@Johnny Coelacanth:
good, you go with your gut.
leave the heavy lifting to actual liberals in the Senate and the labor movement.
Johnny Coelacanth
@some guy: You might want to hit the “Submit” button just once.
You might want to hit the “Submit” button just once.
Mnemosyne
@some guy:
Could you at least find current members of the Obama administration to attach your paranoid fantasies to instead of a guy who hasn’t worked for him since 2010 and a guy who’s never worked for him?
Johnny Coelacanth
@some guy: “actual liberals in the Senate” That’s a good one.
ETA: Oh, wait. We have Elizabeth Warren and Al Franken. My mistake.
Corner Stone
@some guy: Just saying. You now have Johnny Coagulant and the congenital liar Capt Mnemo trying to sniff you down.
It’s tough when these two true American heroes have you in their sights.
Mnemosyne
@some guy:
Um, considering that I still believe that Obama will not cut Social Security, I’m not sure what you think is “inoperative.”
Do you also send letters to Procter & Gamble demanding that they stop sending their profits to the Church of Satan, because the fact that people still tell you that they do that is PROOF that it’s true?
some guy
@Mnemosyne:
funny, page A1 of the Post has a story today (see above) that says everything I claimed two weeks before the election (lame duck deficit reduction, Grand Bargain bullshit, labor and Saunders gearing up to fight benefit cuts post-election)
you claimed it was tinfoil hat bullshit then, and are now simply doubling down on your earlier stupidity. good for you, a useful idiot is always useful, even as he proves his idiocy
some guy
@Mnemosyne:
funny, page A1 of the Post has a story today (see above) that says everything I claimed two weeks before the election (lame duck deficit reduction, Grand Bargain bullshit, labor and Saunders gearing up to fight benefit cuts post-election)
you claimed it was tinfoil hat bullshit then, and are now simply doubling down on your earlier stupidity. good for you, a useful idiot is always useful, even as he proves his idiocy
some guy
@Mnemosyne:
are you too slow to actually read that Zach Goldfarb story, or is the front page of the Post toooo obscure for you?
Mnemosyne
@some guy:
Gosh, yes, the White House saying that they don’t need to make concessions to the Republicans is worth shitting my pants in fear over. You sure got me there.
ETA: Also, people who can’t figure out how to insert a simple link to the story they’re shitting their pants in fear over probably shouldn’t call other people “slow.”
Johnny Coelacanth
@Corner Stain: I’m not trying to “sniff anybody down,” whatever that means. Is it something your mom does? I approve of any and all measures to push the President to the left. Go labor! Go Senate liberals! Yay! But the only purpose of sanctimonious bullshit like “NOBODY saw that coming hurr hurr” is to point out how wise and pure and insightful is Some Guy. Yeah, ok.
scav
“Consider the Fork: A History of Invention in the Kitchen” by Bee Wilson, for the memories of threads past.
Yutsano
@scav: Has anyone told McMegan about this? I think we’ll need her incisive culinary expertise on this delicate subject.
some guy
@Mnemosyne:
so you weren’t too sloooow to actually read the newspaper story. good for you, you can read. badly, but you can read.
unpossible! how could he?
ruh roh, I guess somebody missed that part? and what about this sentence?:
oh well, I am sure with practice your reading skills will improve. and as to an actual Obama official is, maybe you might ask Goldfarb who these “people close to the White House” are who connect cuts to entitlements with Republican willingness to raise revenue.
idiot
scav
@Yutsano: joys to come, apparently m’lad, still more joys to come.
Mnemosyne
@some guy:
Gosh, yes, a story full of unsourced “maybes,” “possiblys” and speculation is clearly worth shitting our pants in fear over because it’s proof — PROOF! — that Obama is obviously going to KILL SOCIAL SECURITY!!
Though I am highly amused that you clearly have no clue who this kabuki theater of labor representatives meeting with Obama to demand no cuts is meant for. Hint: it’s not Obama.
Yutsano
@scav: Oh such frabjousness awaits us! I wonder if we can persuade Tom to break his Blenderella moratorium. No doubt she is studying the subject with her usual careful thought and thorough consideration. I may just squee at the results.
some guy
to me the hilarious thing is meno mind told us all very loudly and very persistently (3 weeks ago) that such a negotiation would never actually occur, much less a week after the election, and to even suggest Obama would negotiate with the Republicans and with his left/labor allies over how best to “tweak” Social Security and Medicare was pure paranoid fantasy.
and yet here we are.
some guy
@Mnemosyne:
you really are obtuse. 3 weeks ago in this forum I gave links to Preserve Social Security, to news stories about the AFL-CIO and Saunders gearing up for a fight immediately after the election, and now you pretend your earlier idiocy and your current blind stupidity are proven by the very things that disprove them.
maybe corner stone is right, you aren’t an idiot so much as just an out and out liar.
GregB
So it looks like Cantor might have ruined the great GOP comeback in 2016 with the unstoppable Petreaus/Rubio ticket.
Mnemosyne
@some guy:
Dude, way to expose your reading comprehension problems. Again.
As I have said before, and will repeat again, we do need to make some changes to Social Security or else the trust fund will run low in 2038 and will only be able to pay three-quarters (75%) of benefits to recipients. Here is the link, again, to the Social Security Administration’s annual trustees report. Will you at least pretend to read it this time so we don’t have to go through these basic facts again for, what, the third time?
But, then, if Obama does propose any changes at all, like, say, raising the salary cap, I’m sure you’ll be back here Chicken Littling that OMG I TOLD YOU GUYS OBAMA WAS GOING TO KILL SOCIAL SECURITY I WAS RIGHT I WAS RIGHT I WAS RIGHT!!
some guy
nemo mind thinks he can blow smoke and use hyerbole to deny his useful idiocy. good centrist, good boy, pretend everything is supergroovy.
like I told the other fool, you keep going with your Center-Right gut and leave the actual heavy lifting to liberals and labor.
Mnemosyne
@some guy:
You do realize that the fight that the AFL-CIO and Sanders (not Saunders, BTW) are gearing up for is with the Republicans, not with Obama, right? You have at least figured that much out?
All I know about Corner Stone is that he really, really likes pie, so you may have to be more specific.
Corner Stone
@Mnemosyne: How about you tell us all here again how Texas gets more federal funds than it sends in?
If I paid some Foxconn employee to chronicle all your willful lies I don’t think I could afford it.
You’re a liar.
some guy
Other liberals say they will fight against any entitlement beneficiary cuts. The AFL-CIO kept its field organizers active for a week after the election to lobby lawmakers against entitlement cuts, while MoveOn.org is using its e-mail list of 7 million people to mobilize.
“We will give the president and his allies in Congress all the support and cover in the world in the fight for no more tax cuts for the rich. That includes, in particular, supporting the president’s position that it’s better to negotiate past December 31st than do a deal that’s bad for the country,” said a top labor official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to comment ahead of Tuesday’s meeting. “On the other hand, the answer for those who want to cut social insurance benefits in an economic crisis and increase economic insecurity is, ‘Hell, no.’ ”
BillinGlendaleCA
@Mnemosyne: You’re right, Social Security will have a problem around 2037, but a few tweaks will fix that(increasing or eliminating the payroll tax cap, changing the COLA a bit). Medicare is the real problem.
some guy
like I said, meets Lenin’s classic definition of “useful idiot”
Roger Moore
@MikeJ:
I was thinking that a blind monkey could probably design a nicer looking campus.
some guy
@Corner Stone:
don’t bother. he can never show me where I claimed O would kill social security (in either lower=case or in all caps) so don’t expect much from our useful idiot, his talking points are with the argument he thinks he is having, not the one he actually is.
Mnemosyne
@some guy:
It’s just so fascinating to me that we can both read the same quote and have two completely different interpretations. I read that as saying that the AFL-CIO is rallying Democrats in Congress to support the president and stop any attempt by the Republicans to cut Social Security, while you read the exact same quote as meaning that they are planning to rally Democrats in Congress against the president to prevent his planned cuts.
(Edited to fix emphasis.)
Mnemosyne
@some guy:
You may need to re-read, um, all of your comments in this thread if you’re unsure why I think you believe Obama is planning to kill Social Security.
Are you now backing down and trying to claim you’re only upset because of potential cuts but that you really think he’s going to keep the program otherwise intact?
ETA: Also, since the female name apparently did not clue you in, I am a “she,” not a “he.”
SatanicPanic
Oh FFS get a room
Yutsano
@BillinGlendaleCA:
ACA takes some real concrete steps to address this issue, one of which is to stop overfunding that Republican boondoggle that is Medicare Advantage. Bringing down medical costs in general will also help a lot here. The best part is it’s providers that are taking the cuts, not beneficiaries.
slag
Having just watched the most recent two episodes of Up on the inter webs, I have to say that show is getting more and more impressive as it ages. Though the token conservatives are predictably intellectually dishonest borderline sociopaths.
And please tell Mr. Hayes that his surprise at Asian American support for Obama is unwarranted. Romney ran a surreality-based campaign. The one and only reason to support him was white nativism. It makes perfect sense that Asian Americans wouldn’t fall victim to that.
some guy
made it pretty c lear, 3 weeks ago, and today, we are talking about entitlement cuts, ie raising retirement ages, reducing benefits and changing the COLA formula for SS, and increasing out of pocket expenses for seniors on Medicare. serious cuts under some plans.
but you keep arguing with the straw man you have constructed. funnier.
Poopyman
As George Takei would say:
“Oh my!”
Anoniminous
Rick Perry is wussing on the secession thing.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Yutsano: This is true, also ACA will reduce gaps in coverage, problems getting worse due to delays in seeing a doctor. So it might be enough to keep Medicare afloat. The problem with Medicare is the end of life care, not sure what can be done about that. I guess there’s always the republican plan, Die Quickly. (Extra snark added)
Mnemosyne
@some guy:
Sure, let’s address those:
Raising the retirement age is part of the fiscal commission’s report, but I haven’t seen an actual public proposal from Obama to do that. (Secret conversations with Republicans that Republicans subsequently leaked don’t count.) Please point me to any articles or speeches where Obama champions that idea.
Changing the COLA formula is not as cut-and-dried as you seem to think. Since inflation has been kept so low for so long, benefits are currently outstripping inflation, which was not the original intent of the program. I’ve seen good arguments on both sides and, frankly, I haven’t come to a definite conclusion, because they both have really good points.
Medicare is a whole different ball of wax, because it’s been folded in under PPACA, so the proposed changes that were outlined in the deficit commission report are no longer operative. Because so much of Medicare is now under PPACA, it’s essentially been separated from any upcoming negotiations because negotiating new changes to Medicare would require simultaneous changes to PPACA, and that ain’t happening, as even Boehner has admitted.
As I have said many times, there will have to be changes to Social Security for beneficiaries to receive 100 percent of their promised benefits after 2038. No one disputes that, so claiming that we can just go along as we are forever is denying reality. Personally, I’d rather make those changes under a Democratic president than take our chances with the next Republican to come along, but of course YMMV. Obviously, my preferred change is to raise the salary cap since it’s comically low right now, but I would also be willing to take another look at the COLA numbers.
Also, assuming all goes well with PPACA and that we are able to improve and expand upon that legislation in the coming decades, you do realize that universal health coverage will necessitate the death of Medicare as a separate program, right? It would make absolutely no sense to have two separate programs, one for people under 65 and one for people over 65.
SatanicPanic
@Anoniminous: Rick Perry might have been the most overhyped pol since Fred Thompson. Those internet conservatives sure know how to pick em.
Mnemosyne
@Anoniminous:
Heh. Funny how Perry changes his tune as soon as his presidential ambitions have died. Now that he doesn’t have to pander to national teabaggers, suddenly staying part of the US seems like a good idea after all.
Yutsano
@Mnemosyne:
This also predicates the demise of the VA, since its purpose under a universal health care scheme would also be redundant. This would be a huge savings to the Department of Defence, which certainly could be dedicated back into promoting universal care. Sounds like a winner all around to me. No wonder it’ll take a huge fight to get.
Anoniminous
And in other news:
They are starting to turn their violence inward. Hope it stays there.
MattR
@Anoniminous: The brilliance of that is magnified by the fact that Romney won Arizona.
Anoniminous
SatanicPanic, Mnemosyne:
Since rousting the rubes time is over, Perry has deflated to grifting his fellow Texans. Fine by me.
Mnemosyne
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Letting people have a session with their doctor to discuss end of life care and living wills with no co-pay as was originally written into the PPACA might have helped but, yanno, DEATH PANELS! Heaven forbid we should let seniors have a rational discussion about end of life care and make their own decisions based on those discussions.
@Yutsano:
There would still probably need to be some specialized veterans’ services for amputees, PTSD patients, etc. But the DoD could pony up a piece of their budget for those while folding the more ordinary care back into the main system.
ETA: Also, too, from everything I’ve heard about it recently, I would be more than happy to have an American UHC system based more closely on the VA than on Medicare.
The prophet Nostradumbass
Mr. Cole just went on a rampage on the Twitter. Something to behold.
MattR
A facebook comment led me to look up the following numbers from Pennsylvania last Tuesday
Votes for President Obama – 2,907,448
Votes for Governor Romney – 2,619,583
Votes for Democratic Congressional candidates – 2,722,560
Votes for Republican Congressional candidates – 2,651,901
(assuming my math is correct)
Number of House seats won by Democrats – 5
Number of House seats won by Republicans –
8oops, 13. Big differenceThe closest House race was 4 points, but the second closest was a 14 point victory.
The five Democrats who won received 61, 69, 77, 85 and 89 per cent of the vote in their elections.
Anoniminous
@MattR:
Yup.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Mnemosyne: Sure seniors will be too confused by “end of life” discussions with their doctors(OMG, DEATH PANELS), but they really want to wade though competing health care plans to find the price that can apply their coupon to. (Again, Republican “logic”)
BillinGlendaleCA
@The prophet Nostradumbass: I hear Mr. Cole has a blog.
SatanicPanic
@Anoniminous: She’s right, her family is going to face hardship from President Barack Obama’s reelection. Let the prophecy be self-fulfilled!
BillinGlendaleCA
@MattR: Ah, who did redistricting in PA for this election? Worked as planned.
Jerzy Russian
@Poopyman: Now that is funny and extremely sad at the same time. It is funny since it is funny, and it is sad that the quality of the media in this country has taken a nosedive to the extent that it has taken.
Yutsano
@Mnemosyne:
That would essentially be an American version of the NHS, where the doctors are direct employees of the government as opposed to individual contractors. Doesn’t seem to hurt the Brits too badly.
The prophet Nostradumbass
@BillinGlendaleCA: yes, but, well, he says stuff on Twitter that he doesn’t here.
pseudonymous in nc
@some guy:
Are you too dumb to understand that the WaPo is simultaneously the Daily Granny-Starver and the class newspaper for Washington High, which is currently all ablaze about how Paula’s been hanging out with Dave and telling Jill to back the f off?
It is not a thermometer of the nation’s political temperature.
BillinGlendaleCA
@The prophet Nostradumbass: True, a few months ago he invited everyone over to his house.
Johnny Coelacanth
@some guy: “leave the heavy lifting to … the labor movement.” Hmmm. Isn’t heavy lifting exactly why we have labor? I’m a knowledge worker.
pseudonymous in nc
@BillinGlendaleCA:
The same computers that did NC’s.
I’d like UnskewedDistricts.com, please.
Mnemosyne
@MattR:
That’s what gerrymandering is for …
BillinGlendaleCA
@pseudonymous in nc: We tried districts with natural borders(city limits, county lines, etc) this time here in CA. Worked pretty well, you know states being the laboratory of democracy kinda thing.
piratedan
@MattR: it’s a very personal edition of GOTV
Anoniminous
@SatanicPanic:
I know, it’s weird she was “worried about her family” and then goes out and ensures major, deep, problems with her family.
I’ll never understand these people.
The prophet Nostradumbass
@BillinGlendaleCA: The Republicans were really, really keen on that idea, until they saw the results. That was funny.
MattR
@Mnemosyne: Which was the point I was gonna make on facebook that got me looking at those numbers. Someone commented about creating term limits and I was gonna suggest we fix the incumbency racket instead. (EDIT: I would suggest campaign finance and lobbying reform in addition to actually neutral redistricting)
@BillinGlendaleCA: That is way too logical.
BillinGlendaleCA
@MattR: Term limits have not been a success here in CA, I’d call it more of an unmitigated disaster.
MattR
@BillinGlendaleCA: I have no doubt. If they are owned by the same backers, it doesn’t matter if it is one person serving for 20 years or 5 for 4 years each.
I did not bother to make this point on facebook because I discovered the actual topic of the post was an urban legend from Fox News that families of Congressmen don’t have to pay back student loans and I wanted to focus on correcting that.
BillinGlendaleCA
@MattR: The problem with term limits is that even if the legislators are not owned they have no expertise in being a legislator. They end up depending on “experts”(corporate shills) to educate them on the various issues that come before them.
Note: Corporate shills can sometimes be unions, here the prison guards union is quite powerful.
? Martin
@Mnemosyne: I’ll help:
The best reporting we have over the grand bargain over at the NYT says that Obama rejected that flat out. He also rejected raising the Medicare eligibility age flat out.
Correct. The one area that SS doesn’t keep pace with is health care, which is what PPACA is designed to address. The solution to health care outpacing inflation isn’t to inflate social security and bankrupt both it and Medicare, but to cut health care inflation back to CCPI levels. That’s the only solution. It’s not a spending cut solution, it’s a reform the industry solution.
Obama is willing to cut spending from Medicare. He did that as part of PPACA and he accepted it as part of sequestration. But his cuts were by reducing what Medicare would pay for services by agreement with hospitals (in exchange for them not having to deal with uninsured patients any longer due to the mandate – kill the mandate, lose the $500B in savings). There’s more room to cut in Medicare without cutting services. It won’t be as easy – but there’s room there. Medicare spends $550B per year. $250B over 10 years is about a 3% reduction, when you factor in inflation and growth. And if they can do it – good. Like I said before, those costs need to come back to general inflation levels.
Alison
This thing is getting…jeez.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/14/us/top-us-commander-in-afghanistan-is-linked-to-petraeus-scandal.html?_r=0
You know…I find it sort of morbidly amusing that for all the nasty tropes out there about black men in general and Obama in particular…a sex scandal happens and it involves a couple (so far!) of boring-ass corn-fed, normal looking white dudes.
srv
Just when you thought it was getting insane
You know what this is? She’s known for putting parties together parties for troops? You wanna guess what kind of parties?
pseudonymous in nc
Okay, in General Fuckage news: turns out that the woman who was getting the stay-away threats from Paula the Broad exchanged 20 to 30,000 pages of “potentially inappropriate emails” with another general, the current commander in Afghanistan.
In case you weren’t keeping track: Paula wrote a book about Dave, and they started banging, then Paula was all “GTFO” with Jill, and FBI Shirtless Division got involved there, and it now turns out that Jill’s been sexting with John.
Alison
LOL jinx.
srv
@pseudonymous in nc: This is a prostitution ring. Heidi Fleiss for DoD.
sharl
At this point, I’m hoping that shirtless FBI dood is gonna be like ‘Torch’ (Gregory Harrison) in the 1986 spoof serial FRESNO!, going about his business shirtless 24/7.
TheMightyTrowels
@pseudonymous in nc: Jesus the pr0n spoof of this is going to be EPIC.
TheMightyTrowels
(stupid moderation. I totally misspelled the bad word too. I think FYWP is learning – hide your girlfriends, hide your wives)
TheMightyTrowel
(stupid moderation. I totally misspelled the bad word too. I think FYWP is learning – hide your girlfriends, hide your wives)
ETA: no. i just misspelled my nym.
johnny aquitard
What does an unpaid social liason and the US commander in Afganistan have to say to each other that takes 30,000 pages? Seriously. That can’t all be sexytalk emails.
? Martin
@johnny aquitard: Good point. I wonder if Stephen King has churned out 30,000 pages in his career. That’s a lot of writing.
Ruckus
@Yutsano:
Universal health care would also eliminate the need for workers comp insurance. If you are covered under one plan for everything it becomes redundant as well.
Ruckus
@Mnemosyne:
As a user of the VA I heartily agree. The VA is unbelievable. And in a good way. My waits are less than when I used to use insurance and go to a private Dr. And there is no waiting for some insurance claims dept to decide if I need some procedure, my Dr. does that. And then it gets scheduled and done. Easy Peasy. And the quality is as good or better. I am a very happy customer of the VA
opie_jeanne
@The prophet Nostradumbass: Got a link? I wasn’t sure what I was looking for.
Elizabelle
Tom: I sent you an email re tonight’s program with TNC and CHayes.
different-church-lady
@dm: Somehow they don’t seem to have these problems down the road at Harvard.
natthedem
What good is the Massachusetts Institute of Technology if they can’t stream events like this?
sherparick
@Mnemosyne: So we do the a 30% cut in benefits now? That is what it means in 2038 if they change over to “Chained CPI” for computing benefit increases is a 30% cut in benefits insteady of a 25% cut if things are unchanged? And the last time I looked, 2038 is still 26 years away, so a lot time to look for the revenue to maintain the benefits. For more on Social Security and this debate, check out: http://www.angrybearblog.com/2009/03/social-security-101-arming-for-battle.html
les
@sherparick:
Ya know, if you’re going to pull hard numbers out of your ass, you probably shouldn’t link to a source that doesn’t support them. And really, if you’re one of those stupes who looks at a number that gets larger every year and gets all shrill about how it’s been cut, just go away. Please.
MattR
@les: As opposed to people like you who insist that decreasing the amount of money that somebody is scheduled to receive is somehow not a cut? If you are originally scheduled to receive $10 this year and $20 next year but instead it is decided to give you $10 this year and $15 next year, how is that change not cutting your scheduled benefits?