In a state where I attended college and pay taxes, the Governor is telling me pro-life/conservative people aren't welcome. Such ignorance.
— Meghan McCain (@MeghanMcCain) January 21, 2014
In case you’re wondering about the source of Meghan’s butthurt, here’s the whole story. Short version: Andrew Cuomo made the observation that there’s no place for far-right Republicans in the politics of New York if Republicans ever want to elect a statewide candidate. This, of course, was transformed by the right wing outrage brigade into a comment by Cuomo on whether those kinds of Republicans were welcome in the state.
As a New Yorker, let me assure Meghan that we’ll be happy to have her here as long as she pays taxes on her trust fund disbursements. But, as a New York resident, Meghan would do well to remember the crushing defeat of Teanderthal / Horse Porn Enthusiast Carl Paladino, who espoused the far-right beliefs Governor Cuomo was referencing. His 37% showing in that race was what New Yorkers thought of Carl’s politics. If Meghan would stop getting her news from Sean Hannity, she might understand that 63% of her fellow residents don’t like Carl’s flavor of conservatism, and her party will be beat like a rented mule in every statewide race until they shitcan their bigotry, sexism and stupidity.
Baud
So much for Meghan being one of the reasonable ones.
Lolis
I might support Cuomo for prez if he calls her personally and says she is not welcome in NY.
Jerzy Russian
If more governors said that pro-life/conservative people are not welcome in their states, we might get somewhere.
Baud
That Wonkette article you linked to said that Sean Hannity is so upset he’s leaving New York.
Right after he gets waterboarded, I’m sure.
dpm (dread pirate mistermix)
@Baud:
Promises, promises. At best he’ll move to Jersey or Connecticut.
rikyrah
Rep. Gohmert drops health coverage, blames Obamacare.
WASHINGTON — Lots of conservative lawmakers hate Obamacare. Rep. Louie Gohmert is putting his money where his mouth is.
The Tyler Republican gave up his health insurance for 2014, asserting that the president’s signature health care law, the Affordable Care Act, has made coverage too expensive.
“Other people are going to see what I did when I looked into health insurance for my wife and me: that the deductible rate, it doubled, about $3,000 to $6,000, and our policy was going to go from about $300 to about $1,500 a month,” he said during a recent radio interview with Trey Graham, a pastor at First Melissa Baptist Church in Collin County. “I actually don’t have insurance right now, so thank you very much, Obamacare.”
Gohmert’s salary as a member of Congress is $174,000 a year. And his calculations ignore the hefty employer subsidy for which he is eligible — almost $950 per month. He says he will pay the tax that takes effect this year for those without insurance — 1 percent of his annual income.
Health care experts say Gohmert is taking a big risk. He’s 60. His wife, Kathy Gohmert, is 59. At that stage of life, medical expenses are common and unpredictable.
http://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/headlines/20140120-rep.-gohmert-drops-health-coverage-blames-obamacare.ece
Aji
@Baud: New York should be so lucky.
Not a big fan of Young Andrew, but stories like this remind why I do still miss living there sometimes.
SarahT
@Lolis: hmmm… I voted for him but I wouldnt go that far – probably send a nice thank-you note, though, or a fruit basket
Kropadope
@rikyrah: Sounds like a lesson waiting to happen. Oh, and I’m totally sure he’s not comparing his former plan to the most expensive triple-minted gold plan he could find after hours of shopping through more affordable options.
Violet
@Baud: It’s the second item on the NewsMax links on the right column!
Wonder if his TV show is getting canceled and he’s using the Cuomo comments as a cover? Wasn’t his show in jeopardy awhile ago?
MattF
“My daddy is you-know-who.” “God is on my side.” “Everyone agrees with me, except for Andrew Cuomo, who doesn’t count.”
SarahT
@Baud: and right after rush limbaugh moves to costa rica
Ash Can
Meghan is willfully ignorant. There is nothing remotely “conservative” about the people Cuomo is talking about.
@rikyrah: Hey, if Gohmert is going to tempt natural selection, I’m sure as hell not going to stop him.
Baud
@rikyrah:
Not much of a risk. He has access to wingnut welfare.
TheronWare
Amen.
Jerzy Russian
@rikyrah: Is it wrong of me to hope that Rep. Gohmert gets whooping cough and/or measles, etc.?
Violet
@rikyrah: Good lord. I do not want to wish bad luck on anyone, but Gohmert having a major medical issue show up this year…… Okay, I can’t even finish the sentence without sounding awful, so I’m just going to leave it there.
Baud
Word of advice to Hannity. When leaving New York, try to avoid the George Washington bridge.
negative 1
I pay taxes, therefore my rear end shall remain unsore. It’s in the constitution.
SarahT
@rikyrah: is it wrong to wish a catastrophic medical event on The Gohmert ? ‘Cause if not, a ligthning strike would be ideal
amk
@Baud: good one. tweeted it to him.
SarahT
@Baud: heh
NCSteve
Well at least the state legislature in NY isn’t attempting to engage in blatant wholesale disenfranchisement of people attend college and pay taxes there, Megan. Come to NC and see how welcome college students are in states that were taken over by Koch Brother hand-puppets.
dmsilev
@rikyrah: Sounds like a Darwin Award nominee. I guess that’s one way to improve health-care in this country: drive all of the reform opponents to cut their own throats out of sheer spite.
PurpleGirl
Not wishing any thing to happen to Gohmert (or his wife), but doesn’t the Congress still have that fully equipped and doctor/nurse staffed clinic that they can go to if something happens while in the office?
Chyron HR
Sadly, the realities of politics prevent Gov. Cuomo from responding, “I called FTD, but they were fresh out of fucks to me to give.”
Aji
@Baud: Oh, please. For him, Christie would send the state helicopter.
scav
Poor widdle dear! Shall the state systematically denigrate her closest personal relationships, interfere in her medical decisions, bar her closest from her in times of need, frustrate her attempts to adopt, support the rights of those that don’t want her sort employable, scream if they see her sort on da TVBox if not dying or an object lesson, etc etc etc? The Princess and the Welcome Map.
negative 1
@NCSteve: It has been since the 90s since I’ve spent any time in NC, but my recollection of the Raleigh Durham area was that they were working very hard in cultivating an image based on the high tech sector and education. It was actually almost implied that they didn’t want to be thought of as ‘the backward south’. How is this stuff going over there?
MattF
@dmsilev: In Gohmert’s case I’d allow Obsessive Obama Disorder as the cause. One must defend oneself from contamination.
Cervantes
@Violet:
Start spreading the news …
Kropadope
@MattF:
Oh, then Gohmert’s in luck. The ACA has provisions requiring insurers to provide access to mental health services.
Violet
@SarahT: A catastrophic medical event would be some sort of significant accident–vehicle, lightning strike, fall off cliff–that requires extensive medical intervention and long term rehab. Then, while in the hospital for the accident, one or two additional major medical problems are discovered–cancer, neurological disease, etc. Those are the kind of things that take a lot of money for a long time as one winds through the various stages of treatment.
It really doesn’t matter how wealthy someone is unless they are the very top of the 1%. If they have that kind of thing happen to them, money will go very quickly. Plus, since Gohmert wouldn’t have insurance, everything would be out of pocket at non-negotiated rates. You know how the hospital bills come in for $30,000 for appendix removal and the negotiated rate they get from the insurance company is $700. Well, he’d be paying a lot closer to the $30K, although those rates can be negotiated.
Cervantes
@Jerzy Russian:
Yes, if the rest of us end up paying the uninsured jerk’s bills.
(I know, we have been paying the bills he has incurred for us — what else is new?)
Roger Moore
@MattF:
And from attempts to sap and impurify one’s precious bodily fluids.
rikyrah
Don’t know if anyone here watches it, but Archer Vice is CRAZY!
SarahT
@Violet: you’re absolutely right – the lightning strike alone won’t do the job. Maybe a lightning strike during a manure factory explosion ?
kindness
Why does Megan McCain even have a public presence? Because her Daddy is a long serving Senator.
I swear to God these idiot spawn of someone important think they are important too. WTF is up with that?
eric
@rikyrah: I do and it is DVR. ALong with Sherlock and Justified. Tonight is going to kick (lazy) ass
eric
@kindness: her boob (dad) and her boobies.
WereBear
@Violet: I’m sure Gohmert is lying.
Cervantes
@kindness:
If everyone else can, why not her?
NonyNony
@rikyrah:
FTA:
How much you wanna bet that Gohmert’s wife has a job that pays for his insurance?
A quick Google search turns up a Kathy Gohmert in Tyler Texas who is the Director of a non-profit known as “Christian Women’s Job Corp”. So if that’s her, Gohmert could very likely be soaking his wife’s non-profit for his medical coverage, rather than use the hated Obamacare subsidy. Probably also why he waited until after the 1st of the year to announce it – so that he could make sure he’d transferred over to her health plan. Probably got the cards in the mail on Saturday and couldn’t wait to run to a microphone.
If so he’s a scumbag – stealing from a charity like that for a pointless act of political grandstanding is just stupid and wasteful. And if so, hopefully this group is actually just a wingnut welfare front group and not a group actually engaged in real acts of charity. Because stealing money from unemployed women to pay for his own healthcare does actually sound like something Gohmert would do.
Patrick
@rikyrah:
At least Gohmert has the right to buy health insurance. Many of us didn’t even have the right, no matter what had due to pre-existing conditions. Gohmert comes acress as extremely spoiled.
rikyrah
uh huh
uh huh
amk4obama @amk4obama Follow
A senior Italian cleric, already on trial over fraud claims, has also been charged with money laundering.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-25831234 …
9:23 AM – 21 Jan 2014
Jay C
Contrary opinion: I think Gov. Cuomo’s comments were pretty stupid: for two main reasons:
First – his comment was, to put it mildly, inartfully worded: it wasn’t blatantly, dumbed-down obvious from the quote that he was referring to state politics: it was all too easy for the RW media to twist his words and make it sound as if this was a personal insult: “You’re not welcome here!” vs. “Your politics wasn’t play here“.
Second dumb move, IMO, was not to watch his words, and realize that the RW media would jump all over this (as they are bound to do), and turn it into a Festival Of Butthurt: trying to paint Andy as the sort of caricature Intolerant PC Liberal they love to castigate. He should have known that hysterical word-twisting and context-shifting (and Organized Butthurt) is what the wingers do.
Thought experiment: shift the Party ID, and think about your reaction to the Republican Governor of, say, Texas opining on-the-record (however worded) that “pro-abortion, pro-gay, anti-gun liberals” “weren’t welcome” in his state. Is it any less stupid?
Lurker
I guess she means that we, New Yorkers, should be tolerant of the intolerant who try to shove their “values” and way of life down our collective throat?
Cervantes
@NonyNony:
That is his wife. She has an MBA and runs the Tyler chapter of CWJC.
As for the organization as a whole:
Baud
@NonyNony:
He specifically said he doesn’t have insurance right now. I wouldn’t put it past him to lie, but that statement covers any possibility that he got insurance through his wife’s work.
MikeJ
@rikyrah: Ballotopedia says he;s already one of the 10 poorest members of congress with a net worth of -$87k.
I wonder if he knows what one hospital stay would do to he $175k salary.
SiubhanDuinne
@rikyrah:
Wow. I honestly don’t (actively, maliciously) wish medical disaster to befall anyone, but it’s awfully tempting right about now.
/bad person
kc
Who cares what Megan “Lucky Sperm” McCain thinks about anything?
kc
@rikyrah:
Maybe if Rep. Dumbshit wasn’t living above his means, he could stretch his 174K yearly salary plus $950.00 per month subsidy to pay for some insurance. Asshole.
Damn, I’m cranky.
GregB
@WereBear:
He’s lying about the cost and he’s lying about not being covered. The man is such a concentrated ball of ignorance and arrogance.
Woodrowfan
because, you know, the rightwingers never, ever try to make groups they disagree with feel uncomfortable.
WereBear
I’m getting fonder of Cuomo as time goes on. He’s divided the state into seven economic districts and runs competitions for each district to get grants based on their past performance. There’s huge hunks of the state which have been suffering since the mills closed way back when; they are moving into high tech and green energy and other 21st century industries now.
True, he slashed some popular programs to keep taxes static, but in our case, we got local businesses to pony up and snagged some sponsors… it’s like “taxing” businesses, but they get publicity out of it.
One of the first things he did was legalize gay marriage and he’s also strengthened laws protecting the challenged children and adults in care, upgraded similar laws for women’s issues, and cleared out some of the corruption in Albany (which I know is a Sisyphean task.)
Cervantes
@Jay C:
Sort of. He was talking about candidates. Transcript below.
Does he now realize his choice of words was inopportune? I am sure of it. But was he right about the substance? I think so — and yet, to many people, truth is not a defense.
GregB
Most of these butthurt rightwingers literally voted to tell gay Americans that they weren’t wanted in their states.
Lurker
@rikyrah:
Gohmert is a major league asshole. Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face!
scav
@rikyrah: I liked that too, the parallel cookie trail of Moral Shepards playing the Diplomatic Immunity card on any convenient occasion. Also interesting how quickly this fooferah is being actively dealt with. Drag in the €£¢ and . . . .
Aji
@Lurker: Well, duh. Don’t you know that tolerance runs only one way in this country? Can’t have the bigots getting their fee-fees hurt.
hildebrand
Let me try this again – great gif. Very cool. http://blog.jamellebouie.net/post/74066414777/gif-of-the-year
NotMax
She can regale her future offspring with tales of having been a POW in the War On Christmas.
C.V. Danes
Actually, what I think he was saying is that people who willfully profess to a life of ignorance driven hate are not welcome.
That, and the rent is still too damn high…
Jay C
@Cervantes:
JFTR, where did you find this transcript (no link?)
Also: yeah, looked at as a whole, Gov. Cuomo’s remarks aren’t quite the dismissive “FU” they have been made out to be by the Butthurt Brigade – though maybe it’s a naive expectation, I still think public figures ought to be able to express ideas without the need for bracketed explications.
Though I will still stand by my second point: there really are Two Americas, and each one has its own “mainstream” media: if Andrew Cuomo had phrased himself a little better, the whole “argument” would be about the appeal of extremist politics in New York State, not manufactured personal affronts… too late now.
Botsplainer
I wish to divert everyone’s attention from Gohmert to a cover of Ron Jeremy doing a cover of “Wrecking Ball”.
http://gawker.com/ron-jeremys-cover-of-miley-cyruss-wrecking-ball-is-1505659813?utm_campaign=socialflow_gawker_facebook&utm_source=gawker_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow
No need to thank me.
scav
And, speaking to being made to feel unwelcome, Kenyan author Binyavanga Wainaina: “I am homosexual”. Try volunteering for facing up to 10 years imprisonment for ‘acts’, let alone not getting civil ceremonies photographed and beflowered. Let double alone not being cuddled for ones inability to play nicely with others by any and all public statements by any and all public officials.
Let us sit upon the ground and bewail the travails of high-status first-world pales.
rikyrah
The Morning Plum: Obama, race, and the Affordable Care Act
By Greg Sargent
January 21 at 9:14 am
President Obama gave a series of comments to the New Yorker’s David Remnick that, predictably, are attracting attention this morning because he said: “There’s no doubt that there’s some folks who just really dislike me because they don’t like the idea of a black President.” Obama also said there are blacks and whites who “give me the benefit of the doubt precisely because I’m a black President,” but this nuance isn’t making it into the headlines.
Far more interesting than this, however, are Obama’s comments about race and the Affordable Care Act:
…………..
In one sense, there is a racial dimension to the debate over Obamacare and the Medicaid expansion. A recent study by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that “poor uninsured black adults residing in the south” are likely to be disproportionately impacted by the decision of many states not to opt in to the Medicaid expansion, likely leading to “widening” racial disparities in coverage and access to care.
National Journal recently noted that GOP attacks on the Affordable Care Act, with their focus on those getting “free health care” thanks to the Medicaid expansion, are akin to the “welfare queen” attacks, and have taken on an element of “class warfare” and ”racial undertones.” Mitt Romney recently claimed he lost in part because he’d underestimated Obamacare’s appeal to “minority populations.” But if such language about the safety net is meant to rally downscale whites against Dems, it’s also worth noting that many poor whites benefit from things like food stamps and unemployment insurance — and, yes, the Medicaid expansion in states where it is being implemented. Even in southern states Kentucky and West Virginia.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2014/01/21/the-morning-plum-obama-race-and-the-affordable-care-act/
Ben Franklin
@Botsplainer:
I have a tremendous need to express my gratitude.
MikeJ
@Jay C:
There is literally[1] nothing that he could say that wouldn’t cause wingnuts to profess butthurtitude. You can’t spend your life tiptoeing around people who are offended by your mere existence.
[1] Literal literally, not figurative literally.
Mnemosyne
@Cervantes:
I’m not a Cuomo fan, but that sounds a little like the infamous “clinging to their guns or religion” quote by another famous politician.
rikyrah
BBC News (World) @BBCWorld 8h
Fascist farm: The Brazilian ranch where black orphans were enslavedhttp://bbc.in/1aFCq1D pic.twitter.com/8OkmHTch6u
Cervantes
@Jay C:
You can find it on line — here, for example, on the Governor’s web-site.
Bill E Pilgrim
@C.V. Danes: Actually he wasn’t saying anything about anyone not being “welcome”, she made that up entirely.
It’s as if the following conversation between him and a reporter:
— “Do you think anyone can get elected to office in New York?”
— “Well no, anyone can run for office, but I think if you’re an extreme right-wing conservative, you won’t be successful in New York.”
…were then picked up by the right wing machine as “Cuomo says conservatives can’t be successful in New York”, and then “Cuomo says businesses run by conservatives are not welcome in New York”. It’s concocted bullshit.
To the “inartful” charge above, I disagree. Trying to watch ones words to avoid wingnuts taking something entirely out of context is useless, they’ll find something to bend into invented nonsense.
Certified Mutant Enemy
@Violet:
Hannity to Cuomo: I’m Leaving NY
NY to Hannity: Yay!
Mnemosyne
@rikyrah:
It’s embarrassing to admit, but my mother is one of those people who professes herself to be embarrassed that the United States is publicly represented by a black family. Though, interestingly, as time goes on, she’s become less and less vehement about it. I think she still hates the abstract idea of it, but the real Obamas (even mediated through Fox News) have won her over bit by bit.
Lurker
NY to Hannity: leave already!
Patricia Kayden
@Baud: He is in New York? Why hasn’t he been living in a red red red state? Kind of surprised about that. New York is so liberal and multicultural, I would think all Rightwingers would hate to live there.
Tommy
@GregB: How about it. When my state of Illinois voted a few weeks ago to make same sex marriage legal, I thought our governor said it pretty well when he signed the bill, “we want all people to come live here. Start a business. Pay taxes. We don’t want anybody not to feel welcome.”
Now I live in the far south of the state, not so liberal, and nobody seemed to care this law passed. No protests. The sky didn’t fall. Nobody is trying to marry a dog. Life goes on …..
Lurker
NY to Hannity: good riddance to bad rubbish!
Lurker
@Baud:
She has bad genes. Not her fault.
Bill E Pilgrim
@Patricia Kayden: A lot, most perhaps, of the FOX Millionaire propagandists live in New York, O’Reilly, etc. They give lip service daily to the virtues of the south and the heartland and etc, but vote with their feet on where to live to actually make money.
Mnemosyne
@Patricia Kayden:
Rightwingers want the benefits of living in a blue state while railing against everyone who lives there. Breitbart was raised in Southern California and lived here his whole life.
I think the only media ‘winger who actually lives in a red state is Rush Limbaugh, who lives in Florida.
scuffletuffle
@Cervantes: Yes, but how many of them get jobs?
Certified Mutant Enemy
@Mnemosyne:
That’s only because of Florida is closer to the Dominican Republic than New York…
Bobby Thomson
NY to Hannity: Drop dead.
Gin & Tonic
@Botsplainer: Yeah, you’ll have to send me a suitcase full of small unmarked bills to get me to click on that link.
Tommy
@Mnemosyne: How about it. I live in a very red part of my state, but my county/district is pretty darn blue (if not Blue Dog). My county is the economic powerhouse of the southern part of the state. We have all these “liberal” things like parks, good schools, libraries, bus and rail service. Funny how folks want to come live here :).
PurpleGirl
@Mnemosyne: And they built him a studio in his house so he doesn’t even have to commute to work. Hannity and the rest of them have to go to a studio to do their schtick.
Cervantes
@scuffletuffle: No idea.
You’re right, I should have made it clear that the description was provided by the organization itself.
charluckles
After spending the entire eight years of the Bush Dog and Pony Show being told I wasn’t a real American these people can go fuck themselves.
Mnemosyne
@Tommy:
I had a whole conversation with my (now late) father where he was complaining because his town in Arizona didn’t have things like access transportation for the disabled and elderly. I pointed out that one of the reasons I was happy to pay higher taxes in California was so people who needed those things could have them. He kind of grumbled but had to concede the point.
@PurpleGirl:
That’s not super unusual in radio — one of our local morning show guys here in So Cal moved to Washington state, so the company built him a home studio. But as far as I can tell, Limbaugh is the only right-wing media figure who actually lives in a red state.
rikyrah
Critic sees ACA as ‘a godsend’
01/21/14 09:39 AM
By Steve Benen
Sean Recchi, a small-business owner in Lancaster, Ohio, was diagnosed with cancer in 2012. The business he and his wife ran wasn’t making a lot money; the family was forced to borrow heavily; and officials at the cancer center where he sought treatment said his insurance was effectively worthless.
Despite these horrific circumstances, Sean’s wife, Stephanie Recchi, told Time’s Steven Brill last fall, “I don’t think Obamacare will help us. I don’t want anything to do with it.” She added, “I hear a lot of bad things about it – that it doesn’t cover pre-existing conditions and it’s too expensive.” Why did she believe this? Recchi said she’d seen “television ads and some politicians talking on the news.”
Here’s a family facing a terrible ordeal, through no fault of their own, and clearly in need a hand. But they’d been misled by charlatans and cranks, feeding on public confusion, and leaving the Recchi family with a mistaken impression of reality.
That was a few months ago. Brill published a follow-up report this week, noting that “what has happened to the Recchis and their health care options more recently might be emblematic of the law’s potential” (via Joan McCarter).
The Recchi family zeroed in on a plan with a $793 monthly premium, which would ultimately cost $566 a month thanks to the ACA subsidy. That was based on $90,000 income – if the family made $40,000, as it had last year, the premium would have cost them $17 a month.
All of a sudden, Stephanie Recchi, who’d previously seen “television ads and some politicians talking on the news,” saw the benefits of health care reform up close. “This is wonderful,” she said.
This is, in political terms, is exactly the kind of nightmare Republicans have feared.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/critic-sees-aca-godsend
Tommy
@Mnemosyne: There is a story I love to tell. In my county if you are disabled or a senior citizen public transportation is free. Well we don’t have enough money to support our system, so the “smart” folks in the Capital told us to start to charge those people. My local politicians told them to go “kick dirt.” So they then decided (mostly folks from Chicago) to not give us the funds were we supposed to get.
The liberals and even, I kid you not, Republicans in Springfield (the Capital) said if we did’nt get the funds they’d shut down the Capital and nothing would pass.
I might add we won.
Mustang Bobby
@Lurker:
That can be fixed at birth now.
Patrick
@rikyrah:
It is sad that there are so many people that are so gullible they believe anything FoxNews tells them to believe.
Tommy
@rikyrah: Amen. Over the holidays, as the only liberal in the place, I got pounded into the ground over Obamacare. I took it for a time and then started to lay out the facts (as I often have to do). I explained (1) I was saving almost $100 a month for my plan (I work for myself) and the plan is like twice as good as what I have.
(2) Has anybody here lost there insurance? Nope. (3) Is anybody paying more? Nope.
And I ended with since like almost everybody there works for the Federal government, they already have an exchange, and we just want what they have, basically a list of plans to choose from and an “open enrollment” so you can change if you are not happy with the plan.
I didn’t change any minds, but they did shut up :).
Woodrowfan
@Tommy:
Sometimes that’s the best you can hope for.
Cervantes
@Mnemosyne:
Ann Coulter lives in Florida, Glenn Beck in Texas.
Gator90
@Mnemosyne: Florida is not a red state. Obama won Florida in both his presidential elections.
Cacti
I saw one of the headlines from NoiseMax is “Hannity to Cuomo: I’m leaving NY”.
Maybe a public holiday can be declared if he follows through.
celticdragonchick
So…I take it that our side will not be opposed to Governor Goodhair telling all of us ‘goddamned libruls’ to get out of Texas?
If it is bad for democracy for their side to say shit like that (and I think it is) then that applies to us as well.
Paulk
@NCSteve: This.
Tommy
@Woodrowfan: Well the house we were at, the man and his wife (my brother’s wife’s parents) are retired. He worked for the Federal government. They both have major health issues. He just ranted to me (I didn’t even get my coat off before it started) that he’d had to spend like a day with his accountant getting his provider some tax info (he really couldn’t explain why). I just said wait. Are you paying more? No. Is your plan changing? No. Can you still go to the same doctors? Yes.
I wanted to just yell at the guy wow that is a really “first world” problem you have there. So you had to spend a few hours with your accountant (not a lot of folks have those) and nothing changed. NOTHING CHANGED!
There is a really small violin playing over here …..
SiubhanDuinne
You can’t spell MEGHAN without NAG and MEH.
Dexter's new approach
I highly doubt he was getting real insurance for $150/mo./per. The average benefit premium is nearly 3x that His old pool may have been a rated little healthier than average in the underwriting, but not 3x.
In any event he was a taker letting the younger and people in his former pool subsidize his premiums (and continue to do so, only less extremely.)
He could have had this be a learning moment when he discovered healthcare in the free market (not hidden behind work plans with pretax premiums) is out of reach for a lot of people. But that was lost on the selfish prick.
Bill E Pilgrim
@Cervantes: Glenn Beck lived in New York, or just across the border in Connecticut, though his decision to leave was usually reported as “Beck leaving New York” and was big news , his statement about his dislike for the area and etc.
Of course it also more or less coincided with him not being on FOX anymore, which I’m sure is really why he left. And FOX being in NYC is of course a big part of why Hannity and O’Reilly and others live there (though those two are also both natives IIRC), but as I said, living where the money is, and that includes “getting a gig on FOX “News”.
Bill E Pilgrim
@celticdragonchick: You should read the actual transcript. He said nothing of the sort.
WereBear
That is great. I was a freelancer for ten years and would have really appreciated such an option back then.
Lurking Canadian
@MikeJ: supporting evidence: they were outraged when he told school children to study.
Violet
@Cacti: I say someone needs to set up a “Hannity Leaving New York” countdown clock/website.
C.V. Danes
@Bill E Pilgrim:
I agree completely. These people make a living by willfully taking comments out of context. The scary thing is that people still listen to them.
sensesfail
Those poor conservatives are so often the victim… at least in their own minds.
But it’s more than that: deep down, being the victim is what they want.
They truly desire those delusions that they have about the federal government, liberals, atheists, gays, and others: (a) taking away their guns; (b) declaring war on Christmas; (c) corrupting their “Christian Nation”; (d) using reverse-racism against them; (e) ramming things down their throats; (e) indoctrinating their children; (f) and generally just destroying everything they value; to be true.
They live for these moments where they can take some words and twist them into an attack and then play the victim.
It’s pathetic.
Tommy
@WereBear: My parents were over when I was on Healthcare.gov. They would not be confused with being liberals. When I finally got in and look at the plans I almost started to cry (and I am not that emotional of a guy). My dad was looking over my shoulder and he didn’t understand.
I told him my healthcare, even though I never get sick, is a total pain in the ass. And now not only was I saving money, my plan was like 100 times better.
I went on to say he didn’t understand. Earlier in the year my mom was in the ICU for a month. Rehab for a week. Heck there was a helicopter involved in her care. A bill of over a million. As a person that worked 30+ years for the DoD, he basically had “government” healthcare. They didn’t pay a SINGLE PENNY.
I told him I wanted that. That before I started to work for myself I always had the best healthcare. Both myself and my employers paid in I don’t know how many thousands, and I NEVER used the services. Now as I get older I might need healthcare and I want to ensure it is there for me.
For the first time in the 7 years I’ve worked for myself I feel I have that.
WereBear
And if I may be frank; sure, if you don’t like New York, get out.
I am surrounded by people looking at their retirement years and declaring that they will move to a red state with no income tax. I find this ludicrous. Just when they need top medical care, public transportation, and the budget-stretching amenities blue states provide… they are ditching them.
After paying into such infrastructure for their whole working lives!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Thus spake Lewis Black, also too.
rikyrah
Sarah Palin whitesplains the meaning of MLK Day to that black guy in the White House
By TBogg
Monday, January 20, 2014 17:38 EST
Word-twerking reality show spokesmodel Sarah Palin woke up this morning and discovered that it was Martin Luther King Day, which she thinks is like Christmas to black people, and, since she forgot to buy presents, she decided to give The Gift of Advice to President Barack Obama by explaining to him that the First Rule of MLK Day is that black people as a race don’t exist anymore so shut the hell up about them.
This also may be why she never calls and never writes to Glen Rice.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/01/20/sarah-palin-whitesplains-the-meaning-of-mlk-day-to-that-black-guy-in-the-white-house/
brantl
@Cervantes: If they can’t read for two paragraphs for their context, they are too dumb to try to talk to.
Mustang Bobby
@Gator90:
True, but we still have to deal with Gov. Rick “Dickwithears” Scott, a legislature that passed “Stand Your Ground” and drug testing for welfare recipients, and Marco Rubio. The next governor will probably be Charlie Crist, who last served as a Republican, and the state Democrats have a field of candidates that couldn’t muster enough enthusiasm to blow a popcorn fart. So we’re a BINO (Blue in Name Only) state.
Tommy
@WereBear: How about it. As I’ve said I live in southern Illinois. My county is pretty liberal as that goes in this part of the state. My town not so much. In 2008 we voted 57% for McCain (did I mention I live in Illinois) and 63% to raise our taxes. We built a new $60M high school. Infrastructure. Nobody seems to be against it. Outside the front of my house is a 5,000 acre corn field. I can walk two blocks and get on a bus and 3 miles to rail. I got rocking infrastructure.
Heck years ago when it came out NJ couldn’t fill out paperwork, and lost like $400M in federal education funds, my town got $750,000 through the Recovery Act to put a fiber optics backbone in my little town and wire every school, city hall, Post Office, library, you name it.
On a mini-rant cause I care about this topic, but those people that want to move, I say let them. I get what you are saying, but you pay for what you get. I recall when our City Manager was in public meetings about the new taxes and school, and he said:
You could see people, even the tea party folks, almost nodding their heads to this. Cause it is just a fact.
SarahT
Speaking of anguish & pain…
http://gothamist.com/2014/01/21/chris_christies_inauguration_party.php
Guess he didn’t want to sit in traffic.
SarahT
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: that was priceless ! Thanks for reminding me.
Villago Delenda Est
I still think Cuomo fucked up by using the labels these shitstains have adopted for themselves.
Call them forced birthers. Because that’s what these authoritarian assholes are.
It’s time to change the framing to reality.
brantl
@Cervantes: Of course Coulter lives in Florida, all the lizards live in Florida, given their choice.
SarahT
@Villago Delenda Est: Fetus-lovers works too.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@Cervantes: The charity seems to be tiny – less than $200k in revenue. I’d be surprised if they provide benefits like health insurance to their directors, but I have no special knowledge.
It might be that he thinks he can’t afford the unsubsidized price increase, or is unwilling to change his lifestyle so that he can afford it. But being able to try to score political points with the Teabaggers is a plus either way.
FWIW.
Cheers,
Scott.
Cervantes
@Mustang Bobby:
One of your Republican state house candidates, one Joshua Black, called yesterday for Obama’s execution. (“I’m past impeachment … It’s time to arrest and hang him high.”)
Cervantes
@brantl:
You do know that Cuomo was speaking on the radio, yes? (I think it was an NPR station out of Buffalo.)
Mnemosyne
@Gator90:
You have a Republican governor and both of your state legislatures have a Republican majority. Sorry, but you’re in a red state.
Violet
@Villago Delenda Est: Yes! I use “forced-birthers” to describe these people. They are not pro-life because if they were they’d support infant care, help poor mothers and so forth. They’re for punishing women. They’re forced birthers.
slippytoad
These fucking losers work so hard to find things to be offended about.
Makes it easy to pile on.
catclub
@WereBear: This, This, This. I am looking at western Mass.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mnemosyne: So Wisconsin is a red state now? Sorry, your view is about limited.
Villago Delenda Est
@WereBear:
We are talking about people who send sizable chunks of their retirement income to grifting Christianist assholes like Pat Robertson and the vile Graham family.
They have no fucking sense. AT ALL.
Richard Andrews
@SiubhanDuinne: True, but you also can’t spell Siubhan without bias, hun.
/jk
Davo
@negative 1: Fellow North Carolinian and Raleighite here.
Its shock and awe mixed with a healthy heaping of embarassment and disapointment.
Every county in the state that has a university (Asheville, Wilmington, Greenville, Raleigh, Greensboro, Charlotte…) all voted against this crap. But we’re surrounded on all sides by a backwater full of 27%ers… I mean just the lowest, most empty-headed buffoons you could imagine.
In short, it sucks.
Villago Delenda Est
@sensesfail:
Well, of course they are, the poor dears. The country they “want back” was crushed by Union armies 149 years ago.
They call themselves “conservatives” but, as Inigo Montoya pointed out to Vizzini, that word does not mean what they think it means.
Omnes Omnibus
@Omnes Omnibus: Stupid autocorrect. “Awfully limited” not “about limited.”
Gator90
@Mnemosyne: If you believe, as I do, that Al Gore received more Florida votes than GW Bush in 2000, then Florida has gone for the Democratic candidate in 4 of the last 5 presidential elections. Some “red state.” It’s true that Republicans control the state government (due in part to aggressive gerrymandering), but don’t be surprised if the governorship goes to a Democrat this year.
GxB
@Violet: Shit, I’d be all for it if I hadn’t gotten all cynical over Ted Idjit’s “Dead or in Jail” proclamation. They’re all hat and no horse, then and now.
Mnemosyne
@Omnes Omnibus:
Do you guys have the Medicaid expansion and state exchanges that the rest of us blue states are enjoying? No? Then you’re in a red state.
You may be held hostage by gerrymandering, but Republicans control your entire state.
Another Holocene Human
Wow, Megs, thought you were more self-aware than that, after drawing the ire of social conservatives everywhere for participating in that anti-homophobia campaign with your mom.
And don’t forget how the racists in your party took down your dad.
Of course, she had a lot of sexist shit flung at her by liberals, enough to make her pull back from social media for a while, so maybe this is her reactionary phase.
WereBear
That is beyond weird, past clueless, and right into straitjacket territory.
Cervantes
@WereBear: He’s doubling down:
Meanwhile, he also says this:
Another Holocene Human
@WereBear: emphasis on “some”, truth is he hasn’t come at them much. he’s not powerful enough. he left it to voters and the DA to take out the trash
Fuck Cuomo into next week. He can beat his tribalistic chest all he wants but I will take a real progressive Dem over a Wall Street dog any day.
The real tell is the transit budget. STILL FUCKED.
Mnemosyne
@Gator90:
And how effective is that governor going to be when both houses of your legislature are still Republican-controlled?
I’m not saying it doesn’t suck for you guys to know that a majority of the voters in your state vote for Democrats but gerrymandering has sliced you up for Republican control, but that’s why we need serious turnout in 2014. Otherwise, you’re going to continue to be stuck in a state that voted for Obama but also voted in Rick Scott.
Mnemosyne
@Cervantes:
I didn’t realize mclaren had been elected to the Florida legislature. No wonder s/he hasn’t been around as much anymore.
Cervantes
@Mnemosyne: Joshua Black is a candidate. He hasn’t been elected — and I’m almost certain he will not be.
Gator90
@Mnemosyne: Couldn’t agree more. Just don’t tell me I live in a red state. I’ve taken a fair amount of internet abuse over the years, but there are limits.
Mnemosyne
@Cervantes:
I dunno, he’s running to Obama’s left on security — haven’t the firebaggers assured us that’s all he’ll need to get disgruntled white voters to turn out in droves?
Mnemosyne
@Gator90:
We’ll compromise and say purple — red in state elections, blue in presidential elections.
Another Holocene Human
@Cervantes: Coulterbeast certainly doesn’t show her face in the “red” part of Florida. Whatever.
Another Holocene Human
@WereBear:
It’s worse than that. Many of them flee back to their states of origin when they really get sick. New Jersey has many more extremely geriatric residents than Florida. There’s a whole phenomenon of early retired moving to sunbelt states for a couple of decades, skipping out on taxes while taxes are transfered to them, then returning to high tax states when they are net drains so they can get paratransit, meals on wheels, better medical care, in home assistance, heating oil assistance, yadda yadda.
There was a whole generation who said, “Fuck you, I’ve got mine.”
But I don’t think it continues forever. The sunny places are suffering serious environmental problems, while those who were left in emptied out Northern bedroom communities literally can’t sell. Early retirement will be available to fewer and fewer people, and younger people have learned a deep distaste for suburbs from growing up in their exurban nightmare.
To be fair in the case of Florida, some of those public worker retirees from New York formed part of the liberal Democratic voting bloc in the state. The counties where they reside have considerably more government services than parts of the state with less transplants. It’s a kind of ugly urbanization but they didn’t renounce faith in gov’t as a bloc when they moved here. And for one brief moment they had control of the state and invested heavily in education. Unfortunately JEB! with the support of flipping red voters in the north and rich jerk Midwesterners on the gulf became governor and stopped all progress, and for four years Rick Scott has been fileting the state budget.
Gator90
@Mnemosyne: Fair enough.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mnemosyne: Current control at the state level is not enough to make a red state. History and national election results also factor in.
brantl
Meghan McCain, professional hose-nozzle.
Renie
@rikyrah: The comments for that article are blasting Gohmert for lying.
aimai
@Jay C: No, he could have phrased himself as artfully and as carefully as, say, President Obama and still been misquoted and turned into a straw man for right wing hysteria. Thats their goal–they don’t need any actual statement backing them up.
jefft452
@Bill E Pilgrim:”Trying to watch ones words to avoid wingnuts taking something entirely out of context is useless, they’ll find something to bend into invented nonsense.”
Yep
@Jay C:
“it was all too easy for the RW media to twist his words and make it sound as if this was a personal insult”
So what?
“He should have known that hysterical word-twisting and context-shifting (and Organized Butthurt) is what the wingers do”
So what?
“was not to watch his words, and realize that the RW media would jump all over this”
Fuck the RW media
“think about your reaction to the Republican Governor of, say, Texas opining on-the-record (however worded) that “pro-abortion, pro-gay, anti-gun liberals” “weren’t welcome” in his state”
I hear that every day, except they say we are not welcome in “his” country, not just “his” state
I repeat: Fuck the RW media
WE are the majority not them. WE represent the will of the people not them
We don’t need to apologize to them for it, or to fear treading on their toes by stating the truth
James Parente
@Baud: She sounds like she was raised in privilege. How could that be?
James Parente
@jefft452: Thank you for expressing this.
Epicurus
Who is this woman, and why are we paying attention to her? She’s a moron who does not understand the subtleties of the English language. Now go away, your 15 minutes were up a few years ago.