Mitt Romney praises possible independent candidate David French https://t.co/rkNVhpM7nA | Getty pic.twitter.com/IM7YUZi6PG
— POLITICO (@politico) June 1, 2016
And we all saw what Mitt Romney's opinion meant to the Trump run. https://t.co/UokiiCqqkU
— Bob Schooley (@Rschooley) June 1, 2016
Roy Edroso, of Alicublog, casts a cold eye on David French:
… I have followed French’s career at National Review for years and will just quickly tell you that he’s not only against gay marriage, he’s also against Griswold v Connecticut, the decision that invalidated laws against contraception (“Is there a single legal doctrine that can stand against the quest for personal sexual fulfillment?” French thundered); that he denounced the widespread mourning of Prince’s death on the grounds that “Prince was ultimately just another talented and decadent voice in a hedonistic culture… notable mainly because he was particularly effective at communicating that decadence to an eager and willing audience”; that he has compared Kim Davis, that crazy clerk who refused to sign gay marriage licenses, to “men like Martin Luther, John Calvin, and John Knox — the men who first put the ‘protest’ in ‘Protestant'”; that he — well, I’m out of time for the moment, but you can peruse the archive for more if you can stand it. The point is, he makes Trump look like Eisenhower…
So, even if this brief moment of pixellated notoriety has faded by evening (the Washington Post has a dutiful synopsis on an interior page, while the NYTimes settled for reprinting a couple of paragraphs from Reuters), Mr. French seems to have earned his stint as a chew toy…
What did David French do to cross Bill Kristol? https://t.co/m9lMmu8ha0
— Josh Barro (@jbarro) May 31, 2016
Kristol should've held big press conference where he came out & walked to the podium and said "The Aristocrats!" into the mic and then left.
— Christopher Hayes (@chrislhayes) May 31, 2016
Bill Kristol tried for weeks to find someone to run against Trump and could only find a third-tier writer at his fourth-tier magazine.
— Jamison Foser (@jamisonfoser) May 31, 2016
If French really is the mystery indie candidate, all he has to be is Trump's Ralph Nader. I'm good with that.
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) June 1, 2016
Good lord he looks like a flaccid penis. https://t.co/QvxxWF0EBz
— John Cole (@Johngcole) May 31, 2016
man this is a real hit or miss look pic.twitter.com/5X7oH6lvyI
— chris hooks (@cd_hooks) May 31, 2016
i'm told French is talking to donors and potential staff as he "finalizes his decision"
— Rosie Gray (@RosieGray) May 31, 2016
One week ago…
Mitt Romney, Run for President https://t.co/7qPkqsmpxc the independent candidate we need.
— David French (@DavidAFrench) May 24, 2016
David French, on @GovGaryJohnson, three weeks ago: "the short case for him is pretty compelling." https://t.co/ORUPhyuvo0
— Matt Welch (@MattWelch) May 31, 2016
(Gary Johnson was chosen as the Libertarian Party’s presidential candidate just this weekend)
So Bill Kristol's big idea is the guy married to Bristol Palin's ghostwriter? All roads still lead to Sarah. pic.twitter.com/sWraZkgx5g
— Bob Schooley (@Rschooley) May 31, 2016
David French, at the National Review, in January:
I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again — I like the Palins. My wife has worked with Sarah on two books, Bristol on one, and she edits Bristol’s widely-read blog on Patheos. Bristol is a former client of mine. I successfully defended her from a malicious lawsuit filed by a man who profanely accosted her in a public setting. The Palins have had their challenges, but they love this country, and both Sarah and Bristol have been tireless in attempting to influence our culture in often (for conservatives) unconventional ways — by injecting themselves directly not just into political debates but also into the liberal lion’s den of popular culture.
So I must confess that it’s a bit much to see the avalanche of conservative mockery and heckling directed at her for her endorsement of Donald Trump. I’m not saying she’s beyond criticism or that one should support Trump because of her endorsement (I haven’t made up my own mind yet, and I swing almost daily between Cruz and Rubio), but perhaps we should consider that the combination of her personal relationship with Trump, her personal experience suffering from years of the most vicious and personal attacks directed at any current or former politician in the United States, and her deep convictions regarding policy priorities for the next president have led her to this decision. In other words, she’s not simply hunting for headlines — she’s doing what she thinks is best for the country she loves…
I hope David French knows he needs to collect like 900,000 signatures in the next 90 days
— Joe Henchman (@jdhenchman) May 31, 2016
If you report on Bill Kristol’s fanfic journal you make DAMN SURE you credit the source pic.twitter.com/c0nXXaGHTF
— daveweigel (@daveweigel) May 31, 2016
It's been clear for weeks that #NeverTrump would die with a whimper, but, well, DAMN.https://t.co/RNfVUZYh9J
— Billmon (@billmon1) May 31, 2016
David French is a lovely person, a decent person of honor and integrity. He deserves better then snarky political twitter tearing him up.
— Noah Rothman (@NoahCRothman) May 31, 2016
Then I feel bad for him, because apparently another guy w same name is debasing himself by cavorting w Bill Kristol https://t.co/db0zG3AZ7Q
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) May 31, 2016
It would be awesome if @BillKristol just played an elaborate hoax on the press.
— Eliana Johnson (@elianayjohnson) May 31, 2016
Waiting for Twitter to run through all the David French jokes/memes so I can wake up tmrw when this gasbag news story has farted itself away
— Chris Rovzar (@Rovzar) May 31, 2016
make fun of Bill Kristol all you want but the guy has made Twitter talk about some random dude all day…
— laura olin (@lauraolin) June 1, 2016
bemused
French looks like a cross between Gov Rick Scott and Putin.
Elmo
Pity John Derbyshire isn’t eligible!
Mustang Bobby
The Republicans had a chance to pick the same kind of candidate in Mike Huckabee, Rick Santorum, Ted Cruz, and Ben Carson, and went with the sex-addled Trump. What makes Kristol think this Mr. French will be any different?
Of course, the operative verb is “thinks.”
raven
But he “earned” a bronze motherrfucking star!
Surreal American
As for the vice president slot on the ticket, it’s been reported that Kristol was lucky enough to find a Teddy Ruxpin in the back of his garage.
French/Ruxpin 2016: A Bill Kristol joint.
Mustang Bobby
@raven: John Kerry has three Purple Hearts. Look what that did for him…
Xantar
Shouldn’t he be named David Freedom?
Botsplainer, Cryptofascist Tool of the Oppressor Class
Dude looks like a dumber version of Chris Elliott (There’s Something About Mary, SNL).
Baud
That’s what he said.
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: A citation I would like to see. Probably for keeping the tires properly inflated on his humvee.
MikeBoyScout
Is it true Mr. French has garnered the endorsements of Buffy, Jody & Cissy?
And why wouldn’t Nigel be a good VP pick?
MattF
The baseline test for leadership is “Could this person persuade a group of first graders to cross the street?” It’s a No.
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: We beat that to death last night. Every officer who serves in a combat zone gets one. It’s like all the bullshit I have, show up ribbons.
raven
@MikeBoyScout: Only if we make plans.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXNhL4J_S00
eric
@MattF: totally disagree. I think most first graders’ first inclination is to get away from this closet pervert.
BGinCHI
@Xantar: You can hear the RWNJs at the ballot box: “French? Ain’t no way….”
eric
@Baud: that image is going to cause emotional scarring
raven
Actually I like Nouvelle Vague – Making Plans for Nigel better.
C.S.
@Xantar:
This wins so very, very much.
Shalimar
How does an Army lawyer earn a bronze star? Did he bore the enemy to death?
The Republic, Blah Blah Blah...
Who the hell is French?
I suppose in some circles, he’s better known but really?
Choose someone who will have next to no name recognition on a national level?
Scanning that line quickly, what I READ was ‘a dutiful obituary’ which is what it should say…
Baud
@raven: So it’s like a participation trophy?
Surreal American
While no debates have been scheduled yet, Kristol has a number of ribbon-cutting ceremonies for new supermarkets lined up for French.
Benw
We are French tyyyypes-uh, you silly English kuh-nuggets!
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
I think Schooley’s on to something:
Bristol Palin’s ghostwriter’s husband for President!! Because otherwise we might have to vote for a Democrat!!1
:-/
Cheers,
Scott.
raven
@Shalimar: Bronze stars are issued to all officers. Bronze stars with “V” device are for people engaged in combat.
RSA
@Botsplainer, Cryptofascist Tool of the Oppressor Class:
Honestly, I thought exactly the same thing. The odds are against him.
low-tech cyclist
Hillary for President – Not Insane!
/Firesign
MomSense
Thanks for the laughs. If we are going to suffer through this mess, at least we can laugh about it.
raven
@Baud: Don’t get me on started on that. I spent 20 years in Park and Rec running kids sports programs and always stressed that kids should participate in order to learn fundamentals and enjoy the sport. It’s the goddamn parents that insisted on extrinsic crap to give them. As far as bronze stars for officers? Yes, they are for being there. I have about 10 medals for Korea and Vietnam and they are all stuff that every enlisted trooper got. I showed up.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@RSA: Chris Elliott is included in one of the Twitter picture collages above. Intentionally, I’m sure.
Cheers,
Scott.
raven
@low-tech cyclist: Give em a light and they’ll follow it anywhere!
OzarkHillbilly
Monty Python goes to Georgia: Georgian vegan cafe attacked by ‘sausage-wielding nationalists’
It’s OK, you can laugh. The thought of John Cleese stomping thru his Fawlty Towers restaurant swinging a kielbasa at surly customers is funny.
Big Ole Hound
@raven: In the Navy they were called “gedunk” ribbons. Gedunk being the candy and chips from ship’s store at sea.
The Republic, Blah Blah Blah...
A flaccid penis w/ a BEARD, John… with a BEARD…
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
Wingers won’t vote for someone who’s French.
D58826
Bernie is getting to be a real pain in the butt:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2016/05/31/bernie-hillary-won-t-get-real-delegates-to-be-nominee.html
His team is also promising demonstrations in Philly. Yea I know the first amendment and all but obviously the purpose is to flip the super delegates. Bernie has an odd definition of democracy. Hillary has more wins, more popular votes, and more delegates than Bernie. If the democratic rules did not award delegates proportionally then he would not be even close. Most of his wins have come from the most undemocratic portion of the process – the caucus. YET he should be the nominee.
He was on his usual kick about repeal and replace Obamacare with single payer. The GOP will love the first part. The second not so much. He wants to eliminate the health insurance companies because of the fat CEO pay packages. He seems to have forgotten that those companies employ tens of thousands of John and Jane Does who will lose their jobs. I guess a few eggs have to get broken in any revolution.
RSA
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: Hah! Thanks for the info.
raven
@Big Ole Hound: And the jar heads have pogey bait. The strange thing abut the Navy is that the Captain often received the valor decorations for the entire crew!
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
Here’s a priceless clip of French hitting on Bristol
ConnecticutPalin (video)MomSense
@low-tech cyclist:
Yes, that is exactly the motto we need this time.
Also, too re: Trump. Nuclear codes? Seriously? I wouldn’t let this creep babysit my kids.
kdaug
@eric: Ding. Lives in a van. Down by the river. Sells candy.
(Clown accouterments possible.) “We all float down here, George”
Chyron HR
@D58826:
He then added, “Please please please coronate me nice superdelegate people with the pretty haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaair.”
gene108
@RSA:
The invention of the safety razor, and its popularization about 100 years ago, has dramatically changed our politicians, with regards to facial hair.
There’s a pre-safety razor era, when politicians had beards and post-safety razor era, when everyone’s clean shaven.
kdaug
@OzarkHillbilly: Oh, no, no. At Flowery Twats, Basil would never have done it himself. He would have gotten someone else to do it. I bet you can guess who.
C. Isaac
FSM doesn’t love us enough for French to run and provide more laughs.
Then again, I thought FSM didn’t love us enough for Trump to run. Turned out he doesn’t, and the joke was still on us. Damn his noodly appendages.
germy
@raven: It’s funny, but every article I see about him now mentions that he won a Bronze Star. They just mention it in passing as if he’s a modest war hero.
Starfish
In that picture on the upper right in the group that John posted, French looks like Chris Elliott.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
@D58826: I wouldn’t take it seriously. he’s just trying to motivate people to vote next week. he did the same thing before NY, where he said 27 different times (actual number) that secret polls showed he would win. from his point of view it would dissuade supporters from showing up and make the loss even worse.if he said “I’m down by double digits but please stand in line for me anyways”.
Cat48
@D58826:
Everything Bernie wants to do would probably cause a recession. Let’s break up the banks, if people lose their jobs, they can find another one! Who cares about insurance employees losing their jobs or a total disruption of everyone’s health insurance? If you have to wait for care, that would be okay! It must be single payer bc it’s all about what I want, not what is practical & work for.everyone! I need primaries to be over. I want Hillary to lead me.
germy
@gene108: I remember an effort was made by the men’s trendsetters at places like Esquire magazine to bring back the straight razor. Dozens of articles explaining how you get a better shave, etc.
Never caught on. Maybe too many people are terrified of accidentally slitting their own throats.
Jeffro
@kdaug:
GAH!! And here I was trying to have a nice early-summer morning!
gene108
@germy:
I used to sort of be interested in trying a straight razor, but yeah…the thought of slitting my own throat was sort of a deal breaker…
Plus I remember how easy, compared to today’s multi-blade razors, it was to knick yourself with a single blade safety razor.
I can only imagine what the slightest twitch would cause with a straight razor.
raven
@germy: It’s bullshit but not unexpected. It’s on his bio and no one really knows what the fuck it means (or doesn’t mean) so they print it. Mornin Joke fawned about it and followed the BS with “a man of integrity”.
boatboy_srq
@eric: Agreed. Should have been posted with a brain bleach alert.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
O’Reilly renews call to boycott French
boatboy_srq
If French finds a running mate named Saunders, will that make him absolutely fabulous?
rikyrah
Vijay Singh Accuses PGA Tour of ‘Absurd’ and ‘Unfair’ Treatment
A three-time major winner is turning into a major headache for the PGA Tour.
In a memorandum filed with the New York State Supreme Court on Tuesday, Vijay Singh accused Tour officials of subjecting him to “absurd” and “unfair” treatment by ignoring the use of deer antler spray by five other professional golfers playing on the PGA Tour and the Champions Tour and then lying to the public by “characterizing Singh as a cheater who caught a break.”
According to Singh, discovery revealed that five golfers, identified anonymously as Golfers A, B, C, D and E, admitted to the Tour as early as 2010 or 2011 that they had used the same spray as Singh but were not sanctioned under the Tour’s anti-doping program.
In 2013, The Tour announced its intention to suspend Singh for 90 days following his admission to Sports Illustrated that he had used the spray, which contained trace amounts of the banned growth hormone IGF-1, but quickly lifted its suspension when the World Anti-Doping Agency determined the product didn’t contain enough of the hormone to be performance-enhancing. Singh sued the Tour, contending that the announcement damaged his reputation, leading to the loss of his longtime endorsement deal with Cleveland Golf.
gene108
@Cat48:
I like big banks.
I like being able to travel across the country and have bank branches in other states. I remember, when banking across state lines was a bid deal and if you relocated to another state, you’d have to open a new bank account.
Big banks solve something that was inconvenient for consumers.
Insurance companies have become some sort of totemic demon for many on the Left. Destroying them is a worthy goal in and of itself.
If Bernie can do that, it will be sufficient to make America better.
I ran into a bunch of diaries on DKos, during the Obamacare run-up, where people just seemed hell-bent on destroying private insurance.
Getting to universal coverage, with insurance companies intact, was somehow a failure, because you did not destroy insurance companies.
Patricia Kayden
Good lord he looks like a flaccid penis. https://t.co/QvxxWF0EBz
— John Cole (@Johngcole) May 31, 2016
Too harsh, Cole. Too harsh. The man cannot help that he looks like a flaccid penis with glasses.
Cat48
Hillary is the best looking candidate running this year. None of the men are appealing at all. Gary Johnson wants to.slash Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, Pell Grants, etc. They’re telling everyone that they’re the middle, but wiki says otherwise.
D58826
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/02/upshot/bernie-sanders-and-rigged-elections-sometimes-you-just-lose.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&smid=nytpolitics&smtyp=cur
A graphic that shows Bernie losing by any way you slice the system:
https://twitter.com/dinapomeranz/status/736976767412494336?lang=en&version=meter+at+7&module=meter-Links&pgtype=article&contentId=&mediaId=&referrer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailykos.com%2Fstories%2F2016%2F6%2F1%2F1532875%2F-Abbreviated-Pundit-Round-up-Trump-stories-getting-negative-and-it-s-only-June&priority=true&action=click&contentCollection=meter-links-click
A couplke of the numbers:
clinton bernie
winner take all 2712 1119
using gop rules 1955 978
rikyrah
Donald Trump is splitting the white vote in ways we’ve never seen before
By Scott Clement
May 31 at 12:24 PM
The potential for the 2016 election to widen America’s racial voting chasm even further is nothing new. But Washington Post-ABC News polls have also identified a related dynamic: White Americans are splintering along education and gender lines at rates not seen in at least three decades.
These contours are well-known among political watchers; whites without four-year college degrees and men tend to be more Republican than women and college grads. But while these cleavages are seen across elections, it’s easy to forget that the gaps are typically not all that large — at least in comparison to this year.
Take 2012. Mitt Romney won 61 percent of non-college whites compared with 56 percent of white college grads. The gap was nearly identical between white men and white women, 62 and 56 percent.
Now, according to the latest Post-ABC poll released last week: Donald Trump received 65 percent support among white registered voters without a four-year college degree, compared with 46 percent among white college graduates, a 19-point gap. If the margin holds, it would easily be the largest education gap among whites in presidential elections since 1980.
Paul in KY
@Shalimar: He came up with a great rationale for a situation where our troops killed someone for no good reason. Kept those troops out of the brig.
boatboy_srq
@gene108: I don’t buy it. Doesn’t explain Washington, Jefferson, Madison, either Adams, Monroe, Jackson, Tyler, Polk,…. The trend for facial hair (in the WH at least) flips with Grant and doesn’t flip back until Wilson.
It also doesn’t explain various periods in history when clean-shaven was fashionable and popular: Plantagenet England, ancient Rome, etc. If razors were so dangerous, we’d see a lot more uniformity in beard growth.
kdaug
@Jeffro: Apologies. If it helps, imagine yourself on a deserted, desert island; With a shit-ton of heroin. “Ladyfingers!”
Gin & Tonic
@MomSense:
Adam went on a bit about this last night after I’d gone to bed, and although I’ve brought it up as well, Adam (obvs) gives a more professional and knowledgeable treatment. Manafort and some on his staff are also now or have recently been on Putin’s payroll. In an objective world, they’d never get security clearances.
D58826
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: It’s not a question of taking it personally but the long this goes on then the longer it will be before the party and consolidate behind Hillary. And she has to spend time and money defending herself on the left rather than going after ‘old little hands’. Just one distraction that the democrats don’t need.
Germy
@gene108: Probably because so many people have been abused by their insurance companies.
I still remember the letter I got from my insurance co. informing me they wouldn’t pay for the medicine our asthmatic son’s pediatrician had prescribed. Pediatrician had to write them a letter before they’d agree to pay.
And I never bought into the “think of the poor insurance company employees” line of reasoning. My first job out of college literally doesn’t exist anymore. Replaced by technology. I then worked ten years at a profession that no longer exists. I had to retrain and learn something new. This has happened a few times in my long working life.
Cat48
@gene108:
I was shocked when they added insurance companies to their list. I don’t understand why they must be destroyed. The new Regulations on the insurance companies are good.
Chris
“Who the hell is David French?”
– me and 90% of the voters in both parties, probably still by November.
No One You Know
“Is there a single legal doctrine that can stand against the quest for personal sexual fulfillment?”
Rape is a felony, still, right?
kdaug
@gene108: Thoreau’s brother died of tetanus from a nick with his razor…
Gavin
Hm, I’m glad someone thinks David French is not worthy of a round of Twitter bashing.
The same would apply to Vince Foster.
D58826
Seems to me that the prime directive in medicine ‘first do no harm’ applies to the insurance companies and the big banks. If you can cut down on the abuses and systemic risk with tighter regulations than that seems a lot less risky than taking a plunge and trying to break these companies up. Remember medical care is 17% of GDP and the financial services sector is 34%. That is a pretty big chunk of the economy to start experimenting with. But for an old time socialist (marxist?) its a feature not a bug since capitalism is inherently evil.
Patricia Kayden
@Cat48: I wonder if a Libertarian President would try to repeal the Civil Rights Act. Chris Hayes showed attendees at the Libertarian convention booing Johnson when he said he would have voted for the Civil Rights Act. Those are scary people and no different from Republicans, in my opinion.
Kylroy
@Mustang Bobby: I don’t think Kristol seriously believes, even in his wildest fantasies, that French could become President. But there *are* a significant number of Rs with major reservations about Trump who would prefer to cast a protest vote rather than either endorse HRC or the reality show star. Kristol’s just hoping to have French play spoiler – you know, the only thing third parties accomplish in American elections (besides nothing).
D58826
At last an explaination for the Trump voter
The profile of a Trump voter
Paul in KY
@OzarkHillbilly: That would have been a great episode! Maybe chasing around the poor Portuguese waiter with it.
Chris
@The Republic, Blah Blah Blah…:
Ha! Like I said.
Yeah. I think this is simply what happens when you live in the echo chamber for so long. You start to believe that references that are obvious and make total sense to you will also be that way for everyone else, and ignore the fact that even among conservatives voters, most people aren’t politics junkies, don’t read the National Review, and have no idea what “David French” is or why they should be worked up about it.
I’ve said before that listening to conservatives talk amongst themselves increasingly reminds me of what I and other Star Wars Expanded Universe fans sound like to everyone else. It makes sense if you’ve been reading all the same comics and novels, and playing the same video games, and reading the same guide books, and reading and adding to the same Star Wars online wikis for the last fifteen years. But to everyone else, it’s just total gibberish.
RSA
@gene108:
How cool that there’s an explanation for the shift in fashion.
D58826
@Germy:
I’m not saying that insurance company jobs are sacred. And the point you make about technological change is valid and a major issue across the entire economy. But Bernie, in focusing on the CEO’s pay and golden parachute (hmm what about Jane’s?) seems to view the employees as collateral damage to the greater goal. Has he been addressing the entire issue of the impact of technology on the job market in any systematic way? Most of what I’ve seen is single payer and impact on jobs be d***, shut down fracking and it’s impact on the economy be D***, shutdown coal mining and it’s impact on the economy be d****. These might all be good ideas in the abstract but in the real world they impact millions of people. The irony of course is that the 1% that he rails against have their parachutes and will still make out like bandits.
GregB
I think we need to get Mr. Cole to a doctor stat. If his flaccid penis looks like David French, he needs immediate medical attention.
Paul in KY
@Cat48: I would assume that if/when single payer is ever implemented, there would be a great increase of jobs in Federal government managing/accounting/etc. the program. People who have done this at the defunct or not-defunct health insurance companies (and those companies still operate in nations with single payer) would probably have a leg up in snagging one of those jobs.
Keith P.
I’m curious about something – on Sunday in Houston (at the edge of one of its nicest neighborhoods) – a man unloaded over 200 rounds from a pistol and rifle, killing 2-3 people and injuring several police officers as well as setting a gas station on fire. How is this not a major national news story? It was a big local story that day (and I got detoured around it that morning), but since then, there’s been a little followup (they ID’d the shooter and victims, gave a bullet count), but nothing like other mass shootings.
Miss Bianca
@gene108: Well, obviously if we bring back straight razors, we have to bring back valets who are trained to shave you with them properly. Maybe that’s a new employment/education possibility for all those newly-unemployed insurance agents and bank tellers.
kdaug
@D58826: I’d argue money well spent.
Paul in KY
@boatboy_srq: How about a running mate with last name ‘Fries’? Maybe low info voters would think they were ordering a happy meal option & that would get them over the top?
germy
@Patricia Kayden: They booed him when he spoke in favor of drivers’ licenses.
@D58826: I agree about the CEOs, they always do fine no matter what happens.
Chris
@germy:
Did you know John McCain was a POW?
germy
@Kylroy:
You’re saying he’s a french tickler?
Paul in KY
@rikyrah: I think ole Vijay has been caught cheating on some other tours back in the day.
SRW1
Man, Bill Kristol has really missed his calling as a headhunter! Imagine what the captains of American business would look like with Bill’s talents fully deployed.
Paul in KY
@boatboy_srq: Good point there. Although many in the aristocracy would have had excellent shavers, with very sharp instruments. It might be the do-it-yourself shaving with a straight razor that gets you into trouble.
SFAW
@Starfish:
Umm … that’s because it’s a picture of Chris Elliott.
Jeffro
@kdaug:
And here I thought trigger warnings were stupid and unnecessary…thanks a LOT! For NOTHING!! GAAAHH!!!
On a strange side note, because my kids have been all into “Hunger Games” and “Maze Runner” over the past few years, the other day King’s ‘Bachman Books’ popped into my head. I was in the middle of explaining to the kiddos how much better “The Running Man” and “The Long Walk” were than HG and MR…then stopped, unsure if it’s just that I’m getting older and edging into old man rants and wondering whether I really want them reading those books just yet (at ages 14 and 10).
Oh what the heck – those books are a total blast. And the older one really needs to check out “Different Seasons”, too!
Paul in KY
@Patricia Kayden: No shit on them being just like Republicans. They ARE Republicans.
Cat48
@Patricia Kayden:
I agree they’re scary. Someone other than Johnson might try to overturn Civil Rights Law’, bc the Paul’s don’t really agree with making accommodations for anyone, even the disabled. Weld who is running as VP wouldn’t dare do that. He lives in MA. They have promised huge cuts though.
Scary people running this year!
Rafer Janders
@gene108:
Except….in the Western world from about 1650 until about the 1850 very few men had beards or facial hair, even without safety razors. (Just look at any painting from the era). That’s why the Founding Fathers, for example, were all clean-shaven. Abraham Lincoln, in 1861, was the first president with a beard.
MattF
OT. NYT coverage of the peaceful lives of Manhattan street vendors.
D58826
@Keith P.: If it’s the incident I’m thinking of, the shooter was a white guy.
germy
@Rafer Janders: Didn’t professional barbers take care of them? People wealthy enough to pose for portraits were clean-shaven..
The guys who were regular farmers or tradesmen went shaggy.
Chris
@Germy:
This. Enough people have had insurance companies try to nickel-and-dime them to death, usually being worst at it when they could afford it the least, that they’re very easy to hate.
Rafer Janders
@RSA:
Not really, these things are just cyclical. As I note above we had a two hundred year era of no beards even without safety razors. Fashions come and fashions go. Like the tides, you can’t explain that.
Ruckus
@germy:
There may still be too many people left that remember that a safety razor really wasn’t all that safe. Better than a straight razor at 6am after a night with a few beers, but not by much.
Kylroy
@germy: No, I’m saying he’s a…Renault-manufactured car bumper attachment that reduces drag? Sorry, I’m not very good at this.
Cat48
@Paul in KY:
I worked at Blue Cross for about 5 yrs and all I did was process Medicare claims for the government. I’m sure insurance companies still do that today, contract the work out.
MattF
@Ruckus: But does anyone use even a safety razor any more? Isn’t it all disposables?
gene108
@Germy:
I have had issues with insurance companies and bills. I have also been handling the insurance benefits, where I work for 18 years.
After nearly a couple of decades of rate hikes, I have concluded insurance companies are just middlemen. As much as they try to control costs they are price takers.
The service providers are the ones driving up the costs. They need to take a cut, across the board, in order to get our healthcare system in order. They are the ones demanding more and more money without end.
I do not just mean doctors, nurses, but also device makers, pharma and everyone else involved.
Jobs come and go. But do those industries still exist?
I think that is the difference.
No company has a secretarial pool of ladies employed because they can touch type 60 words per minute anymore. No one is bemoaning the loss of typing on a typewriter as a marketable skill.
But the industries they were employed in still exist and are still providing jobs to people.
Bernie is proposing an end of an industry, in which no jobs will ever be available again.
MattF
@Kylroy: A spoiler does not reduce drag. It’s actually supposed to produce downward aero forces to keep your wheels on the road.
Tom
@kdaug: “Please excuse him. He’s from Barcelona.”
Bobby Thomson
@bemused: no, Chris Elliott and Matt Walsh.
germy
@gene108: Two industries I worked in disappeared, not just the jobs. I’ve spent most of my working life retraining.
Paul in KY
@Cat48: Right. Was just saying that that kind of work would explode if everyone was on Medicare. Would rather do that as a GS-11 than as an insurance company drone.
Just One More Canuck
@D58826: There you go with your “facts” and “statistics” . As a wise man once said, “People can come up with statistics to prove anything. 14% of people know that.”
Kylroy
@MattF: According to Wikipedia’s entry for Spoiler (automotive):
“The term “spoiler” is often mistakenly used interchangeably with “wing”. An automotive wing is a device whose intended design is to generate downforce as air passes around it, not simply disrupt existing airflow patterns. As such, rather than decreasing drag, automotive wings actually increase drag.”
I just went there looking for an alternative word for “spoiler”, ended up finding this handy hair-splitter!
Steve in the ATL
I have a sister who moved to Columbia, TN a few years ago and then turned into a rabid RWNJ. I wonder if she knows this nutball. Maybe I will un-hide her on Facebook and see if she is lavishing praise on Mr. French.
Starfish
@SFAW: I am really slow this morning, apparently.
Cat48
@Paul in KY:
GS-11 sounds good!
D58826
@Just One More Canuck: Or as the great American Philosopher Mark Twain said – there are lies, d***lies and statistics.
SiubhanDuinne
@D58826:
Nah. They merely misread the stage direction in A Winter’s Tale.
@RSA:
Not to mention the drop off in sales of styptic pencils.
gene108
@Keith P.:
2-3 people killed in a random shooting is the price we pay for the Bundy-types to live out their fantasies of protecting “us” from tyranny.
200 rounds and only two people killed is bad aim. Bad aim is not news worthy.
A gas station on fire is arson. Arson usually does not make national news.
There’s going to come a point, when the majority of people, who are not gun nuts will have had enough and the backlash will be more than expected. The gun-nuts are basically bullying the American people at this point, and sooner or later people will stand up to the bully.
Chris
@gene108:
Not that I’m especially sanguine about Bernie’s ideas here, but isn’t he proposing the nationalization of an industry? That seems rather different from the end of an industry. Government insurance is still insurance. There would still be clerks processing applications and claims and making payments to hospitals and doctors. Consolidating all that sector into one government-run insurer instead of the multiple providers we have now would probably lead to some reduction in that job market, but that’s not the same as actually abolishing that entire field.
D58826
@Chris:
A nicer sounding word than SOCIALISM
Miss Bianca
@gene108: You’re more sanguine (in the hopeful, not the bloody) sense than I am about the American people suddenly and massively discovering enough of a distaste for violence that they’ll be prepared to rise up and confront the gun nuts. I keep thinking there will be a saturation point of irrationality and denial that will be reached eventually; but – kind of like the concept of “peak wingnut” – I don’t think we’ve reached it yet – and sometimes doubt it will ever be reached.
Chris
@D58826:
I don’t know what the hell point you’re trying to make, but okay, whatever. Socialism Bad. Very bad! Bad!
Just One More Canuck
@boatboy_srq: There was a guy named Robert Kiss who was the Speaker of the West Virginia House of Delegates
French-Kiss 2016
Chris
@Miss Bianca:
If Sandy Hook wasn’t it, I don’t know what the hell will be. (I was actually surprised at the time that it even caused as much commotion as it did).
CONGRATULATIONS!
@gene108: Quite a few people during the Great Depression turned their families over to aid agencies and went out and starved to death. Over half of America was out of work at one point. Nobody even rioted. We could stay at the current level of gun killings forever. It’s obviously acceptable.
I mean, we have an average of more than one of these mass shootings every day in this nation and the media doesn’t even bother covering them anymore because nobody cares!
jim parente
@Chris: Insurance companies make their living by denying claims. Their only purpose is to make $$ for their stockholders and senior management.
An even more eggregious examplee of the blood sucking mentality is the National Flood Insurance Program. The insurance companies take no financial risk. They are paid by NFIP to administer the program. Their profists are in the neighborhood of 40% . They deny claims. They nickle/dime.
NFIP is the perfect example of “socialize the risks and privatize the profits”.
Full disclosure: my life was destroyed by this program and others associated with storm recovery.
SFAW
@Starfish:
Ingestion of massive quantities of caffeine sometimes helps me.
Botsplainer, Cryptofascist Tool of the Oppressor Class
@germy:
I’ve gone back to an old school safety razor. I do get a much better shave, and it holds up into the evening. Makes me feel fully groomed, and I like fiddling with the razors, the blades, the brush and the soap.
SFAW
@Just One More Canuck:
Another wise man — but perhaps it was the same one — said “63 percent of all statistics used in conversation are made up.”
cokane
the ballot deadline is already passed in Texas, these guys are idiots
Botsplainer, Cryptofascist Tool of the Oppressor Class
@gene108:
Just take a fraction more time with the safety razor, and you won’t get a nick.
I have two razors – one is with my Van Der Hagen kit. It is a butterfly, and those VDH blades are about 60 cents each but last three days. Plus, the soap is awesome. The second is a long handled screw-down Merkur that I travel with. I use an English soap for that in a covered wood case. I use a blade that I buy off Amazon at $12 per 100 blades – so I use a new blade with every shave.
I pretreat with beard oil, and shave twice in a setting.
Gin & Tonic
@Botsplainer, Cryptofascist Tool of the Oppressor Class: I just love the brush/soap/lather part of this, but for whatever reason have never gotten as comfortable a shave with the old Merkur as with the Gillette Sensor. I guess every face is different.
Marjowil
@gene108: I work for a not for profit major insurance company. I don’t want to lose my job. Bernie bros online said it would be no problem for me to find another job at age 59 after 29 years here, getting closer to retirement with pension. Like I would believe Bernie bros after all the nasty things they have said to me. Ha
Paul in KY
@Just One More Canuck: That would work!
Barbara
This guy French may seem like a weird choice, but to the extent that he actually appeals to fundamentalist religious voters — the backbone of Republican GOTV efforts in many states — it may be an incredibly effective pincer action against Trump, especially in places like Ohio, Wisconsin, and Iowa, where Trump did not win primaries, and where there are a lot of fundamentalist voters. It would make the Republican task there basically hopeless as to the presidential contest, but it would likely make the Senate races in OH and WI more competitive. So Kristol is an idiot, but he is not completely crazy. OTOH, who knows whether this would actually have even the de minimis impact required to “Naderize” Trump. One thing it won’t do is draw votes from Clinton.
Fair Economist
@cokane:
A third-party conservative candidate isn’t being run to win, or even to throw it into the House. Any claim that they might is aimed at the rubes. The point would be to improve Republican turnout for Congress while denying Trump the presidency. That’s a pretty reasonable goal for a “sane” Republican. Unfortunately for Kristol there are basically none of those left.
Paul in KY
@Botsplainer, Cryptofascist Tool of the Oppressor Class: Well, Lord Botsplainer, does your manservant Godfrey heat your towels too ;-)
D58826
@Chris: ‘socialism’ is still a hot button word for much of the country. Hence Obamacare is socialism and Obama is a socialist, etc. That was the only point
Marjowil
@Paul in KY: More likely the feds would contract out administration to the private insurers as they do Medicare now.
Barbara
@cokane: See my comment — the real impact would be in places like Colorado, Iowa, Ohio, Missouri, Wisconsin, and, to a lesser degree, Georgia, North Carolina and Florida. It won’t matter in Arizona or Nevada or Virginia, at least not in my estimation. These are the swing or potential swing states. Trump did not win all of these primaries, and they have large politically active blocks of extremely conservative “values” voters. Wild card would be Utah.
Feathers
@jim parente: Watched Frontline just recently on the Sandy relief. They actually pointed out that the Carter administration kicked the insurance companies out of the program because they were just draining money out of the program and into their pockets. Surprise, surprise, they wormed their way back in during the Reagan administration. Wasn’t the usual whocoulddda knowd?
Sorry that you had to go through all that.
D58826
@Marjowil: Bernie bros seem to play fast and lose with other peoples live. Maybe they all do to one extent or another but Bernie seems more obsessed with the ’cause’ than most. Maybe he didn’t start out that way last year but I think he has been mainlining the koolaid
Marjowil
@Chris: As I said elsewhere, it is doubtful that the federal govt would hire many health insurance administrators rather than contract out to private administrators. Plus the federal jobs are underpaid and always subject to Congressional cuts and political bullying. Private insurers (even not for profit ones) pay well and are more secure.
Gin & Tonic
@Barbara: Well, NC, at least, is out of reach. Filing deadline is next week, and you need ~90k signatures.
RSA
@Rafer Janders:
My lack of faith in humanity is restored.
Marjowil
@jim parente: I work for an insurance company and we don’t have stockholders. And I guess when my insurance paid for my preemie baby in NICU for four months at a cost (about 20 years ago) of $10,000-plus per day… that was illusion, then. Good to know.
Chris
@D58826:
Eh, okay, objection withdrawn, sorry. It is a hot button issue, but it seemed a strange thing to say given that the person suggesting said nationalization is one of the few who doesn’t shun the word “socialist.”
@Marjowil:
Well, I’m not expecting any kind of single-payer at any time in the near future (nor is it the only way to go). But yeah, either way – I don’t see how that sector is supposed to disappear.
Paul in KY
@Marjowil: Certainly the Republicans would want it that way. Agree that they’d probably go that route. I would prefer GSers doing it.
Cacti
Burnie sends Jane out to badmouth Jerry Brown on CNN.
Jerry Brown has a 55% approval rating with all California voters and 77% with California Democrats.
When Burnie loses California, he will blame everyone but himself.
NonyNony
@cokane:
I can’t figure out what they are up to. I mean, Kristol might be so stupid that he doesn’t realize that the ballot deadline has passed for Texas, but someone among his circle of friends has to be able to tell him “hey, Bill – you know that you can’t get on the ballot in Texas at this point, right?”. And it isn’t like there’s a third party waiting to get hijacked and have David French be their nominee – the Libertarians have already nominated Gary Johnson and the Constitution nutters have nominated Darrell “not the Punisher” Castle.
I don’t get the plan here at all. Especially when the candidate is David French.
raven
Hermann Cain has just informed me that the idea that black folks are going to vote for Hillary is a media lie.
Marjowil
@D58826: I definitely agree. I can barely stand to see his face or hear his voice now, when I started out relatively neutral to positive about him.
Paul in KY
@Marjowil: I’m guessing you’ve never been a GS-11 or something like that. I can assure you that most people would cut off their left pinkie for a job like that.
NonyNony
@Cacti:
The core of Sanders’s base in California is that 23% of Democrats. He’s in GOTV mode, trying to motivate his base to get to the polls.
Gin & Tonic
@raven: I think you should probably stop listening to Herman Cain.
Shell
Probably along the lines of “Hey, we don’t have a lot to work with here, people”
D58826
@NonyNony: Interesting write up on Mr. French from Dick Polman
http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/national-interest/item/94208-in-defense-of-david-french-qhuh-whoq
gene108
@Chris:
I had not thought about it from that angle. When he talks about doing away with insurance, I somehow imagined a giant-meteor-impact-Siberian Traps-level extinction event.
Marjowil
@Chris: I don’t see anything wrong with a public option through the ACA. Maybe Hillary can make some progress toward that. I am all for Medicare for all in the abstract but Bernie has no clue about how it would work or how to pay for it. ACA has meant good business for my company but we worked hard to retool customer service and get our systems more customer friendly. It has been a net positive for us. Yes, insurance companies had a lot (too much?) influence on the ACA but it works well for all or most players and can be improved, rather than tossed out as the Republicans want.
Amir Khalid
@raven:
@Gin & Tonic:
Why would one start listening to Herman Cain in the first place?
Shell
With the beard, he looks like the old guy who lives next door to Kevin’s house in “Home Alone.”
Marjowil
@Paul in KY: I used to be a GS-er. Most of my family has been a fed or is still a fed. Pay even for a GS-11 or 12 is low compared to private sector. I very much believe in the federal workforce. They are a good deal — they work for pennies and are loyal and do a good job. But every time the President changed, federal workforce was a bargaining chip to lay off more from the big bad bloated govt, and the climate is worse now with Congress and the public so down on government that can solve problems. The insurance industry is complex and I doubt that the govt would bother retraining new personnel; this is just the type of job they would prefer to farm out.
Chyron HR
@Cacti:
“What is really dumb [about the Democratic primary], is that Republicans could not participate,”
– Bernard Sanders, May 28, 2016
Gin & Tonic
Here’s one measure of the impact of this David French delusion – my Google News feed right now has two instances of the word “French” on the entire page. One is about French investigators maybe hearing the black box pings from Egypt Air 804, and the other is about the French Open (a tennis tournament.) Nobody gives a shit about this dude.
Poopyman
@SiubhanDuinne: Nah. They merely misread the stage direction in A Winter’s Tale.
My second-favorite Shakespeare stage direction, the first being
Marjowil
@Paul in KY: I made it to GS-9. My relatives made it higher. It was a good job but comparatively low pay. I was an asst manager in the govt, and when I went to the private sector, to a mid-level non-manager position, my pay jumped by quite a lot. I don’t remember the figures. It was a while ago.
rikyrah
@Keith P.:
He did it, just cause?
what groups does he belong to?
D58826
@Chyron HR: Maybe Bernie is a GOP mole after all:-)
The Other Chuck
A few things about nationalizing health insurance and the job losses resulting:
1) How many people are put out of work because of medical conditions they can’t treat because insurance won’t cover it? Consider too ancillary stuff like child care as problems that get magnified by both illness and financial hardship.
2) The defense industry is also a big employer. Shall we continue subsidizing those jobs too? How about prison guards?
3) It wouldn’t happen overnight. Golly, I wish I had someone clamoring to protect my job for 10, 20 years down the road.
raven
@Gin & Tonic: I like his 5 minutes with Jamie Dupree, t comes on right after I swim so I put it on in the car. It’s fucking hilarious.
Gelfling545
@gene108:
“No one is bemoaning the loss of typing on a typewriter as a marketable skill. ”
That’s because it’s not actually gone. Word processing & data entry are still jobs moved from one type of keyboard to another. My niece makes an excellent salary because she is an extremely fast and accurate typist as do others of my acquaintance.
FlipYrWhig
@Cacti: I don’t see that Bernie Sanders’s campaign strategy is anything other than “If you’re not Bernie Sanders, you’re a piece of crap.”
Culture of Truth
“Prince was ultimately just another talented and decadent voice in a hedonistic culture… notable mainly because he was particularly effective at communicating that decadence to an eager and willing audience”
HELL YEAH
Marjowil
I guess I’m just objecting to the thought that insurance companies are evil and never help anyone. What medical conditions “insurance won’t cover”? That makes no sense. They can no longer refuse to cover pre-existing conditions. There are now preventive health that must be covered. Whole conditions that are completely not covered?? I can see certain treatments (expensive and of mixed value), certain drugs (expensive, not generic, not approved), I can see high deductibles and copayments. But those people who are out of work because of medical conditions not covered are probably not insured at all. We are not “subsidizing” insurance companies except possibly Medicare Advantage which was added under Bush. And oh yes, I worked for the Defense Dept too, not on war but for Corps of Engineers which has a large non-military role in the environment and infrastructure.
Dave Beauvais
The polls in California have shown Clinton with a substantial double digit lead until the recent PPI poll giving her only a 2 point lead. The MSM jumped all over that poll because it fit their “horserace” narrative. Yesterday a new poll came out showing her with a 13 point edge. Reaction from the media was crickets.
trollhattan
@D58826:
Bernie AND Donny are in town today, which may achieve some kind of simultaneous derp critical mass event. My sole hope is since Donny’s howler monkeys have to report to an airport hanger (“I can’t get away from these morons fast enough, keep the engines running.”) and it was 102 yesterday, there might well be a mass hysteria stroke-out. That’s a significant number of Eff-One-Fiddys I no longer have to dodge on I-5.
Patricia Kayden
@raven: As a seasoned philanderer, 999 Cain knows a little something about lying. Having said that, he’s delusional if he thinks Blacks are going to vote for Trump in significant numbers.
raven
This is good
I Know Why Poor Whites Chant Trump, Trump, Trump
raven
@Patricia Kayden: Like I said, hilarious.
FlipYrWhig
@Marjowil: My take on the ACA is that it essentially forced insurance companies back into the business of… insurance, as in, collecting premiums and pooling risk. Because before the ACA insurance companies were doing some actual insuring of people and, via rescission and other sordid practices, a lot of just sucking money out of people’s pockets when they were healthy and didn’t need the services of the insurance company at all. Objecting to _the whole idea of health insurance_ seems like a pretty enormous leap. It’s sort of like objecting to the whole idea of grocery stores as rent-seeking middlemen between people and food. Down with Big Bag! Community Supported Agriculture for all!
trollhattan
@Dave Beauvais:
On my radio machine this morning one pundit questioned the most recent poll for being so different from the tied poll, in lieu of questioning whether the previous one could be the anomaly. Hard to imagine why….#horseraceRbust
Patricia Kayden
@Dave Beauvais: That’s how the media will react to any favorable polls showing Secretary Clinton beating Trump. They’ll downplay any favorable polls and blather on and on breathlessly about any unfavorable polls. ‘Twill be a fun 6 months.
gratuitous
French may have successfully defended Sarah Palin against a nuisance lawsuit, but her mortal enemy continues to stalk the land: the syntax of the English language. Only when you have slain that dragon, French, will you be duly considered for the presidency of these here United States, you betcha.
West of the Rockies (been a while)
@MikeBoyScout:
Dating yourself a bit… But funny!
Carl W
@D58826: So Sanders is continuing his campaign long past the point where he has any chance of winning a majority of pledged delegates, and simultaneously continuing to imply that superdelegates are undemocratic and illegitimate? I thought he stopped attacking superdelegates once he figured out he needed them (although I haven’t been paying a lot of attention).
D58826
@Chyron HR: What is really dumb is that he said something that dumb
Marjowil
@FlipYrWhig: Certainly there were (and are) bad actors in the insurance industry, who charge big premiums but give less value back in exchange, and yes, the ACA has helped to regulate bad behavior. But for my company, which was always the insurer of last resort in our state and had to accept all hard cases profitable or not, the ACA didn’t really change our business practices, just realigned us from serving mostly employer groups to being a bigger player in the individual market. Not a bad thing. But we still offer the same value for the buck. Yes, we are not the cheapest, but we are reliable and respected.
The Other Chuck
@FlipYrWhig: Last I looked, grocery stores existed in an actually competitive marketplace, and purchasing direct from a CSA didn’t cost you every last penny you’d ever earned.
Why, it’s almost as if two completely different things are different!
Yes, the ACA has improved things. It’s also just a start.
Russ
@Surreal American: oh man, I laughed out loud. You Sit deserve some sort of medal
D58826
@Marjowil: Ah you work for the Mayhew Ins. company. Excellent company
gene108
@Miss Bianca:
It really depends on how serious big money guys, like Bloomberg, are about getting into a political fight with the gun lobby.
It’s going to take more than grass roots activism to push people to start thinking about how the gun lobby has jumped the shark with regards to “gun rights”.
The gun lobby is basically advocating and getting laws passed that state you can carry a gun on you whenever and wherever you want, with little to no permitting or background checks, and if you feel threatened you can legally shoot someone (Stand Your Ground laws).
“Gun grabbing” has gone from feeble bans on a class of weapons and limiting the size of ammo clips, 22 years ago, to actually requiring CCW permits and training to get a CCW permit.
The gun lobby’s moved the goal posts on what gun rights are and moved them in a scary direction that makes us less safe.
Folks with money need to start pointing this out to the busy people in America.
Marjowil
@D58826: No, what’s that?
Paul in KY
@Marjowil: You get a lifetime pension retiring as a GSer. Big difference.
Marjowil
@Marjowil: oh nevermind, I get it. :)
Marjowil
@Paul in KY: I will get a pension where I am now. I got my govt pension when I left and bought a car with it. I’m glad you think a government job is easy street, in some ways it is, but apparently you haven’t had one.
schrodinger's cat
Has Trump given Frenchie a nickname yet?
Miss Bianca
@gene108:
yeah, well, in the meantime, I’ll keep breathing. Till I get shot, of course.
Paul in KY
@Marjowil: You must be in the one insurance company that pays good or you are in a higher position than I thought. Glad you are making the change!
FlipYrWhig
@The Other Chuck: Agreed, but somehow when it comes to health insurance the battle people on the center-left to further left tend to want to fight is about _the very existence of insurance companies_, because the government could do what they do. Sometimes it becomes a complaint about the morality of profit. Well, ya know, we tolerate a lot of things being done by entities other than the government when the government could do them more efficiently and the public would benefit. We could have the government airline, the government bank, and the government ISP. But we don’t. Let’s fight about how to regulate capitalism more zealously, not about the existence of capitalism itself.
gene108
@The Other Chuck:
The thing with single-payer or other forms of nationalized healthcare is that they tend to, from what I understand, make basic care readily accessible, but they have very strict controls – due to trying to control costs – on specialty drugs.
There’s going to be some trade-off with a single-payer system versus what people have now. Some people may end up worse off, because the combo-drug that helps them control their blood pressure better than the generic, may not be on a government formulary. Who knows how it would shake out.
The devil will be in the details. Therefore, the details will be very, very important to not muck up single-payer.
I’m not asking for super detailed analysis, but at least what type of body will be the agency that says “no, we will only pay ‘x’ for Hep-C drugs”, for example. How much autonomy will this group have? How will it get impacted, as the government changes hands between Republicans and Democrats?
Our healthcare system’s a mess. There are no simple fixes.
smith
@gene108:
IIRC, an overwhelming majority of busy people in America support more stringent control of guns. Folks with money would do better to aim their attentions at politicians terrified of the NRA.
D58826
Interesting bit of history on VOX about Bernie and the corrupt democratic establishment. Once he was elected to the House as an independent and started caucusing with the democrats a couple of thing happened, all in Bernie’s favor. The democrats stopped running against him at election time, he picked up seniority and committee assignments that would not have happened if he had stayed truly independent. In 2006 the establishment, i.e.Nancy and Schumar et.al., cleared the democratic senate lane in the primary for him. He won the primary and then turned down the nomination to run as an independent. Currently he is the ranking member on the Budget committee. He certainly has gained a lot over the years from the that corrupt establishment and has shown d*** little gratitude in return. It also throws a bit of shade on the purity pony image he has been trying to project the past year.
Paul in KY
@Marjowil: I didn’t say it was ‘easy street’. Hope it is not. Said it pays well & you get a lifetime pension. I am a civil servant myself.
schrodinger's cat
After I took one look at French’s photo, his ridiculous rules for his wife when he was away made perfect sense.
The Other Chuck
@gene108:
Sandy Hook proved there is no shooting we won’t tolerate. Moloch must be satiated, there is no questioning this, ever.
Marjowil
@Paul in KY: I am mid-level, not in management. It is a large corporation that pays well. I can’t complain at all.
Fair Economist
@raven:
I didn’t realize that the two famous assassinations of 1968 (King and RFK) were of two of the leaders of a big movement to break the economic underpinnings of racism in America, a movement that at the time of RFK’s assassination was actually running an “Occupy Wall Street” camp on the National Mall. Gosh, what a coincidence.
Elie
@D58826:
After the dust settles, I imagine all of this is going to be over. Democrats aint gonna forget and if Hillary is president and he doesn’t make some sort of very big kiss and makeup overture right after the primaries, she will make sure he no longer gets his free passes. Maybe he just wants to retire anyway. Jane can do another college administrator gig and he can sit around down at the diner and talk about how horribly he was treated and how corrupt the Democrats are to all who will listen.
Marjowil
@gene108: No argument. Private insurance companies do payment tiers for specialty and other drugs. There is no reason why insurance companies and single-payer wouldn’t have similar structures and yes, devil is int the details. The problem I had with Bernie’s plan is that he was saying Medicare for All then describing a utopian plan where everything is paid for and there are no copayments or deductibles, and Medicare isn’t like that. Like I said, I have no problem with the concept of single payer. I think universal healthcare is important no matter how it’s structured, and there should be a low-cost public option that works like Medicare. But it is a complicated industry and there are no quick fixes.
Marjowil
@Paul in KY: Well, there’s no argument. My biggest problem with working for the govt is that we were never given credit for the work we did with low pay and low respect, and drop of a hat the politicians would scapegoat us as bums.
Gin & Tonic
In unrelated good news, Twitter has restored the @DarthPutinKGB account which it stupidly banned several days ago.
Matt McIrvin
@Rafer Janders: Yeah, the beardo era of US politics was actually pretty short, lasting basically from the Civil War to the turn of the 20th century. These things have been coming in and out of fashion for thousands of years.
gene108
@smith:
The NRA has pull because they can mobilize voters to vote politicians out of office.
There needs to be a counter to get people voted out because they support crazy-ass gun laws. Public beliefs / habits / tolerance to certain behaviors can be changed.
We’ve done it with smoking, seat belt / child seat usage, interracial marriage and a whole host of other issues, but it takes both time and constant media pressure to reach people.
Imagine a politician running on a platform of allowing smoking everywhere – in a kid’s classroom, in a doctor’s office, in a regular office, etc. – and I doubt he/she would get very far on that platform today.
smith
@gene108:
And yet politicians curry favor with an organization that advocates keeping guns in children’s bedrooms. Not arguing with you, exactly, just wondering what it would take to produce the same amount of public outrage, and rejection of enabling politicians, that your smoking example represents.
Mike J
Ralph Douthat has the best,”who does he look like?”
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cj4PjJTUoAAxGM9.jpg:large
SiubhanDuinne
@Cacti:
Busy morning, so am only now catching up on comments. Jane was just on Mrs. Greenspan’s MSNBC program. The usual knocks on Jerry Brown and superdelegates. I was waiting for a question — something, anything! — on the Burlington College situation, but of course Andrea couldn’t be arsed to ask a question that might upset Jane’s fee-fees.
Or maybe she agreed “hands off Burlington” in advance of the interview, which is worse.
Mike J
@SiubhanDuinne: Mitchell said this morning, “Unless @BernieSanders says ‘I’m out of the race’ there is not a democratic nominee until the convention”
That’s not how this works.
germy shoemangler
tonight on PBS
Miss Bianca
@smith: this is an instance where Bloomberg’s money might be put to good use. A good public service ad campaign that basically shamed the whole “carry a gun everywhere” mentality – made it seem deeply uncool, to say nothing of insanely dangerous – might start to turn the tide.
hovercraft
To complete this farce, French must nominate Palin as his VP, and Bristol for HHS Secretary. That way he can send Bristol around the country to promote abstinence, rhythm method, and as a last resort pull out. That will surely solve our demographic problem ( too many brown people).
Matt McIrvin
@Carl W:
As far as I can tell, he’s using a slippery rhetorical move: he just points out that Clinton doesn’t have a majority of total delegates in pledged delegates alone, which is to say that she “needs” the superdelegates in the sense that if they all flipped to Sanders he’d get the nomination.
Then he lets that statement imply, without actually saying so, that Clinton is somehow rigging the process through the superdelegates (and some of his supporters who haven’t been following the math closely will say so explicitly). It strikes me as dishonest.
Matt McIrvin
…Some of his supporters, though, have used a more sensible version of the argument, that the reason Clinton is leading in pledged delegates is that she created a sense of inevitability early on by having the superdelegates.
To which the best response is probably that it didn’t seem to be a problem for Barack Obama. I remember the news stories from ’08 about how Hillary had it in the bag because of the superdelegates, but they flipped because Obama was actually winning the primary race.
The Lodger
@Paul in KY: Foster Friess was Santorum’s sugar daddy and is well known in Xtian RWNJ circles. Also the guy from Futurama is a possibility, although some Republicans may object because he’s fictional.
Mike J
@Matt McIrvin:
Holy shit, you mean she ran a campaign? Burn the witch! Bern her!
Jim, Foolish LIteralist
speaking of which….
(on topic, I’d bet ten bucks Andrea Mitchell knows nothing about Burlington College. I suspect she gets her ‘news’ from the digests that Politico and Chris Cillizza send to her phone in the morning , then she watches Morning Broseph)
AdamK
@Botsplainer, Cryptofascist Tool of the Oppressor Class: Exactly, especially with the beard. I think he may actually be Chris Eliot pranking everybody.
Jim, Foolish LIteralist
schrodinger's cat
@germy shoemangler: Huffpo had a concern-troll article about how the folks in Elkhart don’t like President Obama.
mohagan
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: And the guy in the lower right hand corner is Selina’s press guy from Veep.
Shell
Has there been any confirmation of any kind whether this is going to be a serious third-party bid and French has accepted? Or still just a fever dream of Kristol?
Reggie Mantle
So today I saw so-called liberals on a so-called liberal blog defending big insurance companies and the “too big to fail” banks that crashed our economy, all because Hillary.
And you wonder why fewer and fewer people see a difference between Democrats and Republicans.
Steve in the ATL
@Reggie Mantle:
I was about to post the same thing! Is this trolling or has someone been drinking Flint water?
Graham
David French? Oh my god….he is the best Bloody Bill could do? LMFAO. LMFAOROTF. Roy Edroso has been featuring him lately and with good reason. Goddamn, son. David French? Really. Oh, please make this happen. David Fucking French. I just can’t……What a funking wanker.
Paul in KY
@Matt McIrvin: He’s never had to think about ‘delegates’ before or all that hard math. Give him a break!
Chyron HR
@Reggie Mantle:
Because Messiah (f/k/a Bernie Sanders) openly courts Republican votes?
Paul in KY
@The Lodger: I would vote for Futurama Fry before I would vote for that Freiss POS.
Gravenstone
@Reggie Mantle: And here comes the talentless parody troll. Seriously child, getter a better day gig, you’re just boring.
Paul in KY
@Shell: Surely this French guy is smart enough to run like a mfer from this crazy suggestion. I hope it happens, though.
Gin & Tonic
@Reggie Mantle: You again?
Brachiator
Coming late to this thread. I thank various posters for all the witty musings regarding Mr French.
Is this really the best that Kristol could come up with?
Matt McIrvin
@Reggie Mantle: Eh. Let me be on record that I don’t think much of the argument that insurance companies and predatory banks have to be kept afloat as jobs programs.
Keith G
My browser and B-J are not getting along, so this is a test.
eta
It worked in IE, but not Chrome.
D58826
@Matt McIrvin: no but they don’t have to be broken up just to satisfy Bernie’s ideological predilections.
Rafer Janders
@germy:
No, not really. We have literally thousands of paintings from the era between the Thirty Years War and the Crimean War, roughly, showing what ordinary peasants, soldiers, tradespeople, farmers, etc. looked like. They are overwhelmingly non-bearded.
D58826
FSM help us. Only silver lining would be if Trump totally destroys the GOP and a more moderate version takes it’s place but I suspect the more likely outcome will be an even more rancid party.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2016/06/01/senator-perdue-donald-trump-proves-its-time-for-an-outsider/?tid=pm_politics_pop_b
evodevo
@bemused: Know the guy – you are not far off the mark …