Finally the Russia story arc seems to be heading somewhere and the *2018* writers reintroduce the Playboy models subplot?
— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) July 20, 2018
It's like faking an orgasm. They're just trying to hurry this along. https://t.co/g4Ci2s51GH
— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) July 20, 2018
Well well well. Look at Long Island's own Michael Cohen, keeping receipts on Mr. Trump. No man's a hero to his valet.
My column on Cohen's rad treachery: https://t.co/qHsYZwALh6
— Virginia Heffernan (@page88) July 21, 2018
… According to media reports Friday, Cohen surreptitiously recorded a shady conversation with Trump two months before the 2016 presidential election. The two goons reportedly discussed how to suppress the 1st Amendment rights of Trump’s alleged former extramarital girlfriend Karen McDougal, a darling-looking skin-mag model. Their cunning plan? To trick McDougal into thinking she was signing a contract to write about the affair exclusively for the National Enquirer.
As for so many of us, journalism seemed like a chance for McDougal to make an honest, fully-clothed living. But, according to McDougal, Trump supporter David Pecker, who runs the company that publishes the Enquirer, killed her story. He wouldn’t let her take it elsewhere, she maintains, but he did promise her a bogus fitness-writing deal that never came to pass.
The writer’s life! Karen, I’m here for you….
If no one but a prude like me is feeling scandalized by the president’s ritual humiliation of his wife and infliction of trauma on his young son, maybe all this prurient chatter should stop here.
Instead, you can approach the president’s perfidy through the indictments of Russian military intelligence commanders for undermining American democracy. But then you have to wade through a lot of Russian and hacker names.
It’s more summery to go the farce route and focus on McDougal, Daniels, Bechard and the Republican bribers who loved them. Plus, Cohen forms a bridge between from Russia and with love…
There’s a useful app called iHere3, which pairs a small keychain device with an iPhone. It lets you wiretap anyone without anything fishy on your phone’s lock screen. If Cohen can manage that kind of spyware, kudos. Impressive — especially while keeping track of all the nude models and Russian oligarchs.
One way or another: bugging Trump. That’s some cold, cold valet work right there. Cohen reportedly has lifelong ties to the Russian mafia, and he’s showing a KGB-level knack for betrayal. I think I admire it.
What’s fascinating is the GOP thinks they can just close ranks around the multi-front catastrophe of Trump. It’s like trying to ride out a hurricane, earthquake and erupting volcano.
— Schooley (@Rschooley) July 20, 2018
— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) July 20, 2018
OzarkHillbilly
More like-
It was then I said, “BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA… Your on your own now, sucker!!!!”
OzarkHillbilly
“I don’t mind hitting here, for sure.”
Matt Carpenter after a historic 3 homer and 2 double performance at Wrigley Field.
JPL
Last nights Trump’s tweet about the NFL and the anthem was mocked and rightly so, but It smells of desperation.
mark
Imagine being bugged by Michael Cohen. The Buffoon said it was Obama.
Keep your enemies close and your friends closer.
HaHaHaHaHa!
A Ghost To Most
@JPL: Not desperate enough yet.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone ???
OzarkHillbilly
Anne, you are one twisted sister. Thank you for Pachelbel’s Canon in C(hicken). I think.
rikyrah
@JPL:
I want just one player, who had never taken the knee, to do it, do the press conference, have a family member in the military, and have them say, that they took a knee in protest of having a President who was a traitor to America, and that is what they were protesting. Just one.
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
rikyrah
David Beard (@dabeard) Tweeted:
Before he was president: #Trump had cocaine at sex parties with 14- and 15 yo girls, reports @BBC @BBCPanorama h/t @yashar https://t.co/hffJ2YAom9 https://twitter.com/dabeard/status/1020370771946991617?s=17
OzarkHillbilly
Baud
I don’t recall the Clinton’s receiving the same consideration.
rikyrah
PragmaticObotsUnite (@PragObots) Tweeted:
Home Depot reverses decision to fire employee who confronted customer over racially charged rant https://t.co/VaG6VMNTka https://twitter.com/PragObots/status/1020504994636869634?s=17
rikyrah
@OzarkHillbilly:
Uh huh
Uh huh ? ?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: She had an email server.
Baud
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
I was referring to Bill’s sexual transgressions. Of course, the email server issue should have been fully ventilatied regardless of the shame and humiliation it brought the family.
Soprano2
@OzarkHillbilly: I hope he saved some for today and tomorrow. They seem happy with the new manager.
tobie
@Baud: My understanding is that right now Trump’s legal team would much prefer to have all attention on Trump’s affairs instead of his and his campaign’s emails, text messages and phone calls with Russian agents. Funny how that works.
Lapassionara
Good morning, everyone. We have a little break in the weather this weekend, and I have a truckload of mulch to haul to certain places in my garden. For a fleeting moment yesterday, I actually felt a bit of happy anticipation.
raven
GO CUBBIES!!!!
Immanentize
Hi all! Off to get my old bike fixed this morning. It’s a 25 year old Trek with grip shifters that always come out of line.
But first hello to you all!
And Ozark, I am so happy you decided not to take that Duck Boat job in the Ozarks….
raven
TEAM W L PCT GB STRK
Chicago 56 39 .589 – L1
Milwaukee 55 44 .556 3 L7
St. Louis 49 47 .510 7.5 W1
Pittsburgh 49 49 .500 8.5 W7
Cincinnati 43 54 .443 14 L2
Gin & Tonic
@rikyrah: I read the underlying story about when he was fired. Rucker has worked for Home Depot for 10 years, in three locations (he’s a musician, and HD is his day job.) In those 10 years his salary has gone from $12/hr to a princely $12.78/hr. Is Home Depot generous, or what?
SFAW
Since it’s an OT, I thought someone should note the passing of one of the great screenwriters, Shinobu Hashimoto. Among his works were Shichinin no samurai, Rashomon, Throne of Blood, and The Hidden Fortress (for which George Lucas says “Thanks!”)
OzarkHillbilly
@Soprano2: Carpenter has been on quite a tear the past month (2 months?) He’s hit homers 4 games in a row. “During that stretch, he is 9 for 16 with six home runs, three doubles and 10 RBI.” and his OPS since May 25 of 1.174 is the highest in baseball. And yeah, he is working on saving some for today and tomorrow, came out of the game in the 6th.
As for Schildt, if he turns this season around they will have to give him the job for the long term.
Gin & Tonic
@Immanentize: Don’t know where you’re headed, but a few years back I bought a bike at Wheelworks in Belmont and recommend them highly.
Immanentize
@tobie: It’s true what you say, but the lawyers are playing a fool’s game. Purely a PR spin effort. Believe me, Mueller and, we now know, the US Attorneys’ offices of New York, Virginia and D.C. will not be distracted from what they need to accomplish in their own cases. Trump may want a diversion but it doesn’t seem that Justice is feeling particularly diverted.
SFAW
@Gin & Tonic:
Well, it’s not as if ghetto-dwellers need a lot of “honest” wages, since they’re all pimps and drug dealers, right?
[Before anyone gets all bent: the story I read yesterday, I (think I) recall that the racist asshole giving Rucker a hard time told Rucker to go back to the ghetto, or something similar.]
Immanentize
@Gin & Tonic:
Thanks. I know that place. My neighbor gets his 1970’s 10 speed! Worked on there. I go to JRA Cycles (Just Rolling Along) in Medford. They are great too — I guess I’ve been asking them to fix this same bike for 15 years….
Sister Golden Bear
Thanks all for you kind thoughts. Things hurt far less than I was expecting— although that may be do to heavy painkillers. More just like comfortable, particularly being catheterized.
But once again I seem to be blessed/cursed with the inability to simply sleep through the day. Hopefully, I’ll be able sleep through the night.
hueyplong
@rikyrah: With regard to that BBC story about cocaine and underage girls, I wonder if Trump has thought through the fact that the combination of his EU trashing and his Putin fluffing might cause our allies to conclude they have little to lose by unloading the dirt they have on him now, before things go too far from their own perspectives. For them it isn’t about judicial appointments or who loses health insurance. It’s about their national security, and they’ve got a right to be a little freaked out right now.
Of course, the answer to pretty much any question starting with “I wonder if Trump has thought through…” is “No.” He interrupts his own sentences with remarks about how great he is.
zhena gogolia
@Sister Golden Bear:
So glad you’re on the mend. that’s what heavy painkillers are for
zhena gogolia
@hueyplong:
I saw that BBC story a while ago and wondered why it wasn’t getting more play.
Baud
@Sister Golden Bear: I don’t sleep well in hospitals either. Speedy recovery.
Immanentize
@Sister Golden Bear: I am so glad to hear things went well. I really appreciate you filling us in. And as someone mentioned, this is no time to try to be a hero about pain. Employ the meds they offer.
Gin & Tonic
@zhena gogolia: It was 1980’s New York. It would only be newsworthy if the party *didn’t* have cocaine.
Immanentize
@hueyplong: I agree with you — the Trump bluster at the NATO meeting was so unnecessary and so obviously geared to US consumption rather than NATO….
Well if I were one of those countries I might be willing to let some info fly through the transom.
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: Pbthththththththththth. ;-)
The record that Carpenter tied yesterday? Was set by none other than Kris Bryant in 2016.
zhena gogolia
@Gin & Tonic:
I meant more about the underage girls.
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: The wind was blowing out.
I was at this game 12 years ago!
“CHICAGO — Cliff Floyd and Carlos Beltran hit grand slams,
and David Wright added a two-run homer in the sixth inning as the
New York Mets scored a club-record 11 runs in the frame against the
Chicago Cubs on Sunday night.
The Mets sent 16 batters to the plate in the 41-minute half
inning and benefited from two errors on Chicago second baseman Todd Walker. Eight of the 11 runs were unearned. Chicago pitchers threw
70 pitches in the inning.”
Baud
@zhena gogolia: That’s a nothingburger on the Republican scale.
raven
OzarkHillbilly
@Immanentize: So am I. 17 dead,
I can not imagine the devastation this woman is feeling.
raven
Here’s a good one for all you bird fans
Tatis hits two grand slams in one inning vs. Dodgers
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
Yeah. Wow. What a tragedy.
OzarkHillbilly
@SFAW: Yes, that’s what he said.
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: Why do I think the lifejackets may have helped some but not all? It sounds like it flipped over and they we in an enclosed cabin.
Quinerly
@Sister Golden Bear: so glad to see your post! Glad you are doing so well. ?♥️??❤️?
Schlemazel
@Sister Golden Bear:
Enjoy the pain killers as long as you need to, don’t rush just heal
Get well soon
debbie
@Baud:
I put this in the same category as Kavanaugh’s belief that a president shouldn’t be investigated while in office (“Oh, now it’s wrong?”).
OzarkHillbilly
@raven:
Yep. Carpenter said that on the last one he got too much under it, didn’t think it had a chance until he looked up at the flags and saw the wind, and it just barely made the basket.
The Cards are, as far as I can tell, a ,500 team this season. Matheny got a lot of undeserved blame over the years but even I could see it was time to move on this year. I have my doubts Schildt can fix what ails the Cards. Fowler’s batting avg is below .200. I think Phams is like .237. Wong about the same. Ozuna who was supposed to be the big bat in the middle of the order is hitting .278 but has (I think) only 6 homers. Martinez and Carpenter are the only 2 consistently dangerous hitters.
Meanwhile the Cubs are once again playing like Joe Maddon Cubs.
Immanentize
@OzarkHillbilly: It’s been so strange hearing about it — what were the tour people thinking! Ive been oddly obsessed by the story. I heard that the canopy tops on the boats lock people in if they sink and they don’t stand a chance with or without life vests. And they had the plastic ‘windows’ down too in the weather….
The FTA warned about this serious danger –15 (FIFTEEN!) years ago! I see Duck Boats every day in Boston, but their water ride is short in rather shallow Charles River water Maybe it’s like Poe and his fear of being burried alive, but drowning in a car, or trapped underwater like that just spooks the hell out of me. It’s not just the numbers lost which has upset me, it is how they were lost. And needlessly.
Baud
@Immanentize: It does seem to hit one on a primal level, moreso than the average tragedy.
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: And the Cards hit a number of seeing eye grounders too. Lester did say he has felt his mechanics have been a little off the past 3 games.
tobie
@Immanentize: Agreed. The move reeks of desperation, and it seems pretty bone-headed at that. The evidence that Mueller and the NY AG’s office are sitting on must be massive. I guess we’ll get the first glimpse next week at the Manafort trial.
BTW: Judge Ellis budgeted only one week for the trial, which strikes me as crazy. I did jury duty once for a far less complicated case and the trial lasted a week.
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: From what I read they went under nose first and the short video pretty much confirms it, but yeah, Life jackets would have saved more but by no means all.
OzarkHillbilly
@Immanentize: From what I saw in the video the captain should have turned and ran with the wind, heading for shore as quickly as he could, but I’ve never been in a duck boat much less driven one, so what do I know?
HeleninEire
@Sister Golden Bear: Good to hear from you. Prescription pain killers ROCK!!
Keep keeping on.
Immanentize
@tobie: Judge TS Ellis is a well known cranky loose cannon. Two (or more) interesting factoids — he is senior status which means semi retired with a reduced caseload (I clerked for just such a judge right when he took senior status). Ellis is 78. He was born in Columbia! Immigrant!!
My guess is everyone thought that the DC case and the Virginia case would be quickly consolidated away from Ellis. Manafort’s team (wisely I think) resisted the consolidation. So here we are.
The thing about being a Federal trial judge is that it really doesn’t matter how long a case is calendared for, it will go on until it’s finished. No trial judge wants to mess up even a week long trial by creating errors that will get the thing reversed. His tight scheduling is a way of driving the litigation.
Ken
@debbie:
CROWD: We have no king but Caesar!
PILATE: Well this is new. Respect for Caesar. Until now this has been noticeably lacking.
Immanentize
@OzarkHillbilly: They should never have gone out in the first place. Everyone knew the storm was coming. Those things swamp easy. Looking at the video, they looked like toys in the bathtub the way they bobbed adout….
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: It looks like there is a hatch on the bow, if it got flooded from the craft digging in it seems like it would be easy for it to go that way.
MomSense
Kids are all on the way home. Have to ignore the news and clean my damn house! Oldest is playing a concert tonight at some fancy place for wealthy tourists and summer people. We’re going to jauntily drape our cardigans over our shoulders and crash. I warned the kids about staying away from Nantucket reds and they think I’m talking about some kind of new recreational drug. If you’ve ever seen a dance floor full of them, you know the danger is real.
@Sister Golden Bear: Keep mending SGB and try to get some rest.
Immanentize
@MomSense:
Super scary when seen in a pack.
Immanentize
Ok, bike shop opens in 1/2 hour — later!
Gin & Tonic
Seen on Twitter: Maria Butina was just a cluster-bomb version of a honey trap.
MomSense
@Immanentize:
They’ll bump into your girl a lot, slosh their drink on you, and then to apologize they’ll tell you a joke but you’ll miss the punchline because they are already laughing LOUDLY over it.
Baud
Interesting. Thoughts?
https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2018/07/21/politics/nixon-black-voter-problem/index.html
MomSense
@Immanentize:
“Ellis is 78. He is from Columbia”
Trump: RIGGED WITCH HUNT!!1!!
Me with my bad Nicholson impression: Is there another kind?
OzarkHillbilly
@Immanentize: Witnesses said the storm “came out of nowhere” that winds were calm until the sky suddenly turned black and the wind started picking up (our tornado alley T storms often come about in this manner) but the NWS had put out a severe thunderstorm warning a half hour before, which means a storm IS coming, not “might develop” as with a watch, so yeah they shouldn’t have gone out.
@raven: That would do it.
The Other Chuck
@Baud: Probably because Wilmer just gets pissy and irritated (more than usual) whenever he’s asked any question whatsoever about racism, then deflects it back to the only note he knows how to sing. In short, he doesn’t fucking listen.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
Only people who hate FREEDOM listen to warnings from Big Government.
Baud
@The Other Chuck:
The whole article talks about the NY governor’s race and CA Senate race too. Wilmer isn’t as prominent in those races.
sylvainsylvain
This has been blowing up here in Oklahoma, and I haven’t seen it cross the threshold into any kind of national coverage yet…
On June 26, 2018, Oklahoma state voters approved State Question 788, which legalized medical marijuana. After seeing how different states implemented (or failed to implement…) similar ballot initiatives, SQ788 mandated that it would take effect 30 days after passage, and that if an individual had a prescription for medical marijuana, there could be no penalty from an employer for testing positive for THC. SQ788 passed w. 57% of the vote, w. only the far western and southern belt close to Texas voting against it. Both the OKC and Tulsa metro areas voted for it, ans well as most of the rest of the state.
Before the election, SQ788 was polling well, and Governor Mary Fallin had said the state legislature would probable be called into special session to write the regulations to implement SQ788. After the election, Fallin passed this task onto the Oklahoma State Board of Health. You could argue that having (elected) legislators write these regulations would be better (accountability) or worse (incompetence); either way, in a year that saw the teachers protest result in a $6000/yr increase in teacher pay, keeping it out of the legislature’s hands probable seemed like the safest route for the Republican power structure in OK (they control both the State House and State Senate w. supermajorities, as well as the governor.
On July 10, the Oklahoma State Board of Health approved emergency rules for implementation of SQ788. These rules included: no sale of flower (actual pot; you’ve got to buy edibles. No smoking allowed), max amt. of THC of 12% avail at dispensaries (really low, not much help to those that need it), and that a pharmacist licensed by the state of OK must be on site. That’s the real poison pill. No pharmacist would risk their license to distribute a Schedule 1 drug.
After the rules were approved, Gov. Mary Fallin immediately signed them.
Then, the real craziness got going. Seriously, this stuff is bananas. Faked death threats, bribery, OSBI investigations, state AG investigations, and the law is scheduled to be implemented on July 26. I’d put a bunch of links in, but don’t want to get caught in moderation. go the the Tulsa World, Reddit Oklahoma, and thelostogle.com if you’re curious.
p.a.
@Baud: Black Democrats are more likely to consider themselves moderate or conservative than other Democrats.
Enduring influence of trad black churches? AME etc? (Not being judgmental pro or con, just spitballing)
tobie
@Immanentize:
Thanks. That’s what I wanted to know.
MomSense
@The Other Chuck:
He doesn’t realize how arrogant and offensive he is when he acts like he gets to decide what is progressive and what isn’t. He doesn’t have the imagination, empathy or the lived experience to know what life is like for people who aren’t cranky white males.
I found his lack of knowledge on his pet issues to be insulting to my intelligence but when he said that black men wouldn’t be harassed by police if they were working for 15/Hour and not standing around on the street to be throat punch worthy. That wasn’t even the worst of it. I loathe him.
H.E.Wolf
@Ken:
Hee hee. (Instant earworm, too….)
OzarkHillbilly
@sylvainsylvain: So red state republicans thwart the will of the people via shitty regulation writing. SSDS. (Same Shit, Different State, says the guy from the state of Misery)
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: I am not African American but I just don’t trust these LTTs (Leftier Than Thou) pols as far as I can throw them. They are our version of the tea party, more interested in posturing than getting things done. Their patron saint in Vt is a good example of the type.
Plus their math doesn’t add up.
H.E.Wolf
Noah Brand, if you’re still around, congrats and high-fives re: your note in the previous open thread.
schrodingers_cat
@MomSense: His opinion on financial matters ( supposedly his interest and expertise) was so woolly and uninformed in that interview he gave during the primaries.
germy
@MomSense:
They’d be harassed on their way home from work. And on their way to work.
Philando Castile was a respected employee of his school district. That didn’t save him.
Baud
@p.a.:
I don’t know. White people have the luxury of being able to self select between two parties who want them, so maybe that explains some of the dynamic. Black political leaders certainly don’t seem more conservative than their white Democratic counterparts.
It also may be that hating the Democratic party has become more of a white think than a black thing.
I do hate racial splits like this though. It threatens to snowball into more serious divisions.
rikyrah
@OzarkHillbilly:
OMG.This poor woman???
rikyrah
@Sister Golden Bear:
Get better.
Chetan Murthy
@p.a.: My guess is, you’ll find that Latinos and Asians are also more moderate. Re: Wilmer, sheesh, he clearly doesn’t give a shit about the experience of African-Americans, and that fricken’ -shines- thru. You’d think that for a guy who was so loudly called-out during his prez campaign, he’d have made sure to keep vocal advisors onboard to educate his shiny pate, make sure he didn’t continue to fuck up. But no. Not our Wilmer.
ETA: why “more moderate”? Well, maybe white people can choose either party, based on other factors. But minorities have less choice, b/c only one party respects their right to exist. So more minorities who would otherwise choose the GOP, will instead choose to go Dem, b/c …. well, self-preservation trumps religion, class, etc.
rikyrah
@Quinerly:
Morning to Poco and the tribe ??
Josie
@Immanentize:
You are describing exactly how I feel. I had to walk out of the movie “The Poseidon Adventure” before it was finished and I have a mental block about going on an ocean cruise.
Sloane Ranger
@Immanentize: CNN interviewed a Captain of a Duck boat who works in Boston. She said that there, at least, the canopy is made of some sheeting material that is fixed with either a zipper or velcro so it can be easily removed in an emergency.
It sounds like they didn’t have that here. So sad.
rikyrah
@Baud:
We have been in America for over 400 years. WE KNOW that progress is incremental. We are pragmatic optimists. By our existence in America, we have to be. We are not gonna fall for the Revolutionaries. Our history is littered with Revolutionaries and what happened to them.
Revolutionaries are to the left, what guns and abortion are to the right:
Shiny objects that we pay no mind to. You have to tell us how, in concrete terms, how to get from point A to point B. You don’t get brownie points for our in the sky ideas that sound good, but will get nowhere.
schrodingers_cat
@rikyrah: We have to contend with more than hurt feelings when Rs win. Our necks are on the line, witness the anti-immigrant jihad unleashed by the current party in power.
schrodingers_cat
@Chetan Murthy: Why is support for BS the definition of “progressive” I call bullshit.
ETA: Not criticizing you, but the premise of that CNN article Baud quoted.
trnc
Blast from the past question – this comment (https://balloon-juice.com/2018/04/26/this-meathead/#comment-6851456):
I didn’t look at the actual filing at the time, but it states:
http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-lawyer-michael-cohen-represented-3-people-past-year-2018-4
According to the same doc, Cohen was counsel for the org until Jan 2017, but then dropped the org when he started his own practice. The doc is clearly referencing the 3 clients that Cohen had after starting his own practice. So, what the hell was Avenatti talking about?
A Ghost To Most
@sylvainsylvain
Assholes gotta shit on things they don’t like.
Life is so much saner here.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
(Peers cautiously through doorway)
Good morning, BJ. About 1/2 an hour from reentering the US on the train (Vancouver-Seattle). Anything happen while I was out?
I hear T embarrassed us on the world stage. But he always does that.
I hear there’s new hard evidence of his criminal activity. But that happens every week too.
Chetan Murthy
@schrodingers_cat:
My guess would be, b/c it feeds into the “Dems in disarray” storyline. They don’t care about Wilmer’s politics one way or the other; hell, they probably dislike ’em (b/c CNN’s a money-making outfit, run by rich men). But Wilmer’s constant sniping at Dems …. now that’s fricken’ catnip. And damn him, Wilmer plays right into that.
Yarrow
Good morning, everyone.
@zhena gogolia: @hueyplong: The story about the underage girls at parties and Trump’s preference for them has been out there since 2016. Link.
Also:
Starting a modeling agency to bring in girls, possibly underage girls, because he wants them for his own purposes? What’s that called again?
Also, don’t forget that Trump “allowed” (told?) Ivanka at age 14 to go model for John Casablancas’ Elite modeling agency. He, of course, admitted to sleeping with at least one of his underage models.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
so the Beast was up and ranting at dawn
so I’m sure a discussion of a pay-off to (yet another) mistress was all there is to worry about in Cohen’s files and tapes.
I notice that this time around, nobody’s bothering to pretend he (or anyone) is worried about Melania’s reaction. I wonder if Kellyeanne’s incommunicado (incommunicada?) on the Sea Owl with Rebekah. That always struck me as something she tossed out.
James E Powell
@raven:
That was my first game at Dodger Stadium shortly after I moved to Los Angeles.
Both grand slams were off Chan Ho Park. If memory serves, Dodgers manager Davey Johnson was thrown out of the game between the first and second grand slam. Whoever was making decisions either wasn’t sure what to do or just decided to leave Park out there to suffer. His awful pitching was matched by the Dodgers awful fielding. They had three errors. Park gave up 11 runs, but only 6 were earned.
A Ghost To Most
@schrodingers_cat:
Not progressive, передово́й.
JPL
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I know my favorite president did nothing wrong. Thanks Obama!
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: So now we add “search warrants” to the list of things he either doesn’t understand or wants to abolish in American Democracy?
A Ghost To Most
Interesting. Cyrillic threw me into moderation (it appears.)
Ken
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
“And it’s a slow easy pitch, almost a setup for the batter, what can he be thinking…”
Gin & Tonic
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Well, I have to agree with him there.
Gin & Tonic
@A Ghost To Most: Cyrillic used to be OK, then it was OK in small doses, but for a while now, it seems it’s just a straight no-go.
JWR
“Your favorite president”!
ETA. I see others have gotten there first, but I just had to include the very first reply.
Yarrow
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: Not a thing. Super boring Infrastructure Week.
germy
Miss Bianca
@MomSense: Yup. And I’ve felt pretty alienated from my white progressive friends who were all meeping about how “uninspiring” HRC’s candidacy was, and creaming themselves over a guy that I found to be the flip side of Trump – arrogant, abrasive, dismissive of anything and anyone that didn’t resonate with his pet themes, and, as evidenced by his interview with the NY Post (? was it?), absolutely unable to articulate actual policies. As in, “So, what’s your plan to break up the big banks, since you’ve been screeching about how awful they are?” – “I DUNNO”.
Meanwhile, the woman who had the plans, who had the experience, who had the intelligence, drive, and vision to build on Obama’s legacy gets sand-bagged not only by the right, but by the left as well. So, yeah…fuck these white “progressives”, who seem utterly unable to fathom that “progressive” steps are always, necessarily, incremental in this society. Fuck all these “I want my ponies, I want them NOW, and if you don’t promise them to me, you’re a neoliberal!” folks. Anyone who didn’t pay attention to what black voters wanted, or think about how a Trump presidency was going to fuck with immigrants, women, POC – screw them and their moral and political blindness. I find myself way more in resonance with these black Democrats than I do with white ones.
tobie
@sylvainsylvain: I didn’t know about the goings-on in Oklahoma regarding medical marihuana so thanks for the update. I hope things don’t get really out of hand next week when the law legalizing medical marihuana goes into effect. Hard to keep up with everything… It feels like so many fires are burning all at once.
Ken
@Yarrow: Yeah, pretty much like every Infrastructure Week for the past year and a half.
A Ghost To Most
League Of The South sends a mash note to Russia.
M31
well this is sooooo surprising, the Duck Boat company involved in the Missouri accident used to run them in Baltimore, but shut the Baltimore side of it down when the workers tried to unionize, citing safety concerns, seems like depraved indifference is company policy?
link to Baltimore Sun
tobie
@Miss Bianca: I hear your righteous rant and heart it.
The was recently an article in New York magazine about how complicated Medicare is and why “Medicare for All” won’t necessarily ensure universal healthcare coverage. In short: it’s a slogan.
If you have time, put your energy into some of the remaining Democratic primary races where purity ponies are wreaking havoc. I’ve contributed to both Gretchen Whitmer (Gov race MI) and Sharice Davids (Cong race KS) and have written both volunteering to phonebank. It’s the best use of my commitment to a policy-oriented Democratic party right now.
schrodingers_cat
@Miss Bianca: We are the pragmatic Democrats not ideological purity ponies.
Spanky
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: “Paging Inigo Montoya. Mr. Montoya to the Very White courtesy phone.”
A Ghost To Most
@Miss Bianca:
Fuckem. Just keep swimming.
James E Powell
@M31:
Depraved indifference is an essential component of a capitalist economy. Caring about what happens to people or the environment after you make the money? That’s just commie talk.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@tobie: The CAP plan the DSA activists describe as “shameless” is, as broadly described, is pretty much my ideal as a campaign plank and as a policy.
I’ve for some reason gotten out of the habit of reading Kilgore since he went to NYMag, but he’s usually a good read, I should look for his stuff more often.
The Ancient Randonneur
@Gin & Tonic:
One of my faves is the Wheel works in Somerville. But I do like the their Belmont location.
debbie
@JWR:
The replies to his tweets are always entertaining.
Tenar Arha
@Sister Golden Bear: Glad to hear that you’re doing okay. I hope your sleeping improves. Best wishes.
clay
Y’all hear about this James Gunn shit? I understand why Disney fired him, but it’s a damn shame to give the alt-right a victory.
Elizabelle
@Sister Golden Bear: You are eleven hours ahead of Eastern Daylight Time. That has to mess with one’s sleeping patterns, even with all those wonderful painkillers.
Hope you are right as rain soon, and telling us about your recovery sojourn in Thailand.
germy
@tobie: I think the new slogan is Improved Medicare For All
tobie
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I was really sorry when Ed Kilgore left the Washington Monthly. I haven’t read the Monthly blog regularly since then.
This piece by Kilgore from July 2017 on Medicare for All is even better in explaining how much cost the individual must shoulder in Medicare in its current form. It’s a quick and good summary. I’m really sorry that Harris, Gillibrand, Booker et al went all in on the ‘medicare for all’ bandwagon. Franken voted for it but acknowledged it was purely aspirational and didn’t address the complexities of healthcare. Gawd, I miss him.
germy
@clay: Dave Bautista tweets support for James Gunn: “I’m NOT ok with what’s happening to him”
Miss Bianca
@clay: No, what’s that all about?
tobie
@germy: You could be right. Since I don’t have either a Facebook or twitter account, I’m often behind the times.
danielx
Tedeschi Trucks Band with Marcus King last night.
It was good for the soul.
debbie
@schrodingers_cat:
That is what made Obama so special: He was both aspirational and practical. I’m not sure there’s another like him waiting in the wings.
Kelly
@tobie:
The “for all” part is a good goal. A universal program will be more politically resilient than a bunch of smaller programs. How to get people that trust their current arrangements to trust a new program is a tough problem.
A Ghost To Most
What do you do with 62 million wilfully ignorant tools?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@tobie: that’s a good article, and I admit to finding the complexities of Medicare hard to grasp. I still think expanding Medicare– whether to a wide-open buy in, or limited to 55+, or 50+– is good policy and good politics. If “Medicare for All” is a broad and flexible slogan, “Medicare available to all”, I think it works. If it becomes an internal litmus test for single-payer…. I’m less confident.
A Ghost To Most
@danielx: How were DBT?
Platonailedit
Tiger Woods is on fire in his comeback bid. Leads with six birdies today.
germy
@tobie: I don’t have a twitter account, but I read tweets.
Facebook, I stay away from.
danielx
@A Ghost To Most:
Can’t say enough good things. Tight, kick ass, soulful rock and roll band, and Derek Trucks’ playing is transcendant.
Quinerly
@rikyrah: Tail wags, meows, and waves back at you. Have a great day!
Miss Bianca
@A Ghost To Most: Wow, Colbert said all that stuff? On his *show*? Oh, my.
zhena gogolia
@Miss Bianca:
I’m a little confused too. I think this is from the article that’s being quoted, not from Stephen Colbert directly.
Gin & Tonic
@debbie: Do yourself a favor and don’t look at Atrios’ Twitter postings today, then.
zhena gogolia
@Miss Bianca:
The Colbert quotation ends with “gangrene on the body politic.”
efgoldman
@Gin & Tonic:
Lived right up the street from there for 18 years; watched it metastasize from a little store front to take over the block
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I honestly don’t see how it doesn’t become a litmus test once we start debating legislation.
tobie
@Kelly: I’m happy with “universal healthcare” as a slogan. No problem there. It’s just a question of how we get there. One of the things Obama said was that if we were designing healthcare from scratch, he’d go for single-payer. But we’re not in that position, and that’s why the ACA was modeled after the German healthcare system which does cover everyone for a fraction of the cost of what we have in the US. Is it a perfect system? No. But neither is France’s. What it does offer is a path to affordable universal healthcare coverage without causing major disruptions.
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: A buy-in to Medicare would also work. Sounds like the public option that Joe Lieberman took out of the ACA proposal. What a dick.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Gin & Tonic: Wow. He’s gotten worse over the last ten years. I’m open to an argument that Obama screwed up HAMP, but that kindergarten-level tantrum from a man who has a PhD and is IIRC close to fifty than forty doesn’t really make me want to ask his wonky opinion about policy and politics.
danielx
@A Ghost To Most:
Sorry…Drive By Truckers were excellent. Just overshadowed by the headliners.
debbie
@Gin & Tonic:
I won’t, thanks.
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Oh, jeez, now I’ll be fighting the urge to look. What’s the guy’s issue with HAMP?
efgoldman
@MomSense:
Lime green pants with a whale print?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@debbie: this is as sophisticated an argument as Dr Black is capable of mustering today
ETA: It’s been a while, but I think the last straw for me with Eschaton was when he front-paged his alpha-PUMA commenter’s theory that Sonia Sotomayor was secretly pro-life and part of Obama’s crypto-republican plan to kill of the Democratic party
WereBear
It is also the tragic ending of what should be a happy outing.
Not to excuse anyone, but such tourism operations have a contradictory dilemma; it is important and sometimes required to stress safety, but this makes consumers nervous and bored, and breeds resentment.
If more people would just be mature adults… I’m a nut that way, I don’t mind being told things that might save me from death or injury.
I’m reminded of a tragic airplane accident case; apparently one guy in the whole plane listened to the safety talk, and was able to get he and his wife to safety through clouds of smoke because he could orient himself and knew what to do.
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I don’t see that on my feed. When did he post it?
I’ve been meaning to dump him for a while. I might just go ahead and do it.
germy
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Oh, it’s Twitter, not his blog. Still, I think it’s time to part ways.
debbie
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Oh boy. I’m beginning to hate the internets.
Platonailedit
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Voters handed Obama shit and he tried his best to make lemonade.
clay
@Miss Bianca: Gunn has been anti-Trump online so Mike Cernovich dug up some old offensive joke tweets of Gunn’s and orchestrated a campaign against him. Disney fired him from GOTG3
Denali
Hope the Medicare for all approach does not brand candidates as purity ponies. Went to hear Kirsten Gillebrand last night to find out if she might appeal as a presidential candidate as was pretty impressed.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Denali: did MfA (feeling lazy) come up?
Immanentize
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
That is super fantastic! Bravo!
ETA movie pedant -+ “Rebecca”. “Love her? Love Her?!
I hated her.” Actually that is probably my second favorite noirish film. My first is Laura.
Hafabee
@Miss Bianca: Here’s Colbert’s entire monologue from the other night that opens with the ‘gangrene’ remark.
Kelly
@tobie: Agree. I think the next small steps should be removing the obamacare subsidy income cap to get more people on board and limiting out of pocket medicare costs. Small steps easy to market.
MobileForkbeard
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: The dumb thing is, I like Duncan on many things. But he has this weird need to shit all over Obama that I dont understand. It’s like he takes “not ideal” and “gave Republicans chances to work with him” and converts that to “bad”.
Which is also sort of understandable, but he feels the need to bring it up all the time. Like the people who were saying “Well, Obama also sometimes separated kids from parents when they immigrated illegally even if it was carefully monitored, brief, and much more rare. We need to stop this and know that everyone fucked it up.” You’re not helping. You’re just giving people excuses to disengage
Miss Bianca
@Immanentize: “Laura” – hands-down one of my favorite movies ever. I think we may have had this discussion before…anyway, not sure why Dana Andrews didn’t have a bigger career – he’s smoking hot in this one. And Gene Tierney, oh my…
OK, that one’s going back on the rewatch list.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Immanentize: ?
I was referring to Rebekah Mercer, pretty sure the family yacht is called the Sea Owl (which I think is a pretty cool name). Is that from the movie, Rebecca? I don’t think I’ve ever seen it. Was thinking about a movie tonight. I wonder if that’s streaming.
Immanentize
@The Ancient Randonneur: Just got back from JRA Cycles. They only took 60 of my hard earned balloons today. But my son, the Immp, was eyeing 100 balloon bike shoes…. Not today!
debbie
@Miss Bianca:
Also pretty good in Best Years of our Lives.
Miss Bianca
@MobileForkbeard: “You’re not helping. You’re just giving people excuses to disengage”
Rat-fuckery from the right, rat-fuckery from the left…it’s amazing we get anywhere at all! : (
“Yeah, I know Donald Trump is setting the Constitution on fire, sucking up to foreign dictators, and destroying any and all regulations as well as the ACA, but LOOK AT THIS ONE THING OBAMA DID OVER HERE” is getting not only old – it’s actively damaging to the body politic. Fuckem.
Ruckus
@Gin & Tonic:
In these times of generous salary, they are normal. I believe the thinking by corps is if $12 was enough for him to take the job in the first place then $12.78 is more than enough. It is after all a 7% raise. Over 3 yrs! You don’t want the owner of HD to have to put 10% less in the bank do you? MBA’s – killing working people, thousands at a time, and making owners happy and ever so little bit richer.
david
So, were those Manafort texts that were released yesterday real, or faked?
That LGF guy re-tweeted it, but I haven’t seen any other liberal sites biting on this. And liberal twitter is strangely silent.
Denali
@Jim, foolish literalist,
Question from the audience re health care. Gillebrand also mentioned singer payer and getting rid of the private for profit insurance companies, which may be too big a bridge to cross. It was popular with the audience, but the audience was not the general public , but invitation only.
Kelly
I’m dreading another horrible wildfire season in Oregon. A cousin near the Rogue River is on Level 2 be ready evacuation alert from a wildfire 2 miles from their home. They scrambled yesterday afternoon to move all their animals (including bee hives) to friends in safer places.
Immanentize
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: in the movie Rebecca, well, I won’t spoil it, but her boat is named Je Reviens.
I thought you were playing Rebekah Mercer (and Kellyanne) off the movie. It would be a great version? My mind is a strange mess….
Joan Fontaine! is the second Mrs. de Winter, but she plays it too cutesy. It’s a fabulous film, but try out Laura if you haven’t seen that. Vincent Price in a male giggolo role!
NotMax
@Miss Bianca
Suffice it to say he and the bottle were on a first name basis.
Ruckus
@Immanentize:
I had one customer who commuted by bike, with a 20+ yr old clunker and he refused to buy something new, but every 3 yrs, I’d completely rebuild it for him. He’d been doing this ever since he bought the bike, his commute was something like 25 miles each way every day.
Calouste
@A Ghost To Most: First time I’ve heard Russians described as being of Northern European extraction. I’m pretty sure 30 years ago the League of the South would still have called them Asians.
germy
@Miss Bianca: I always loved Linda Darnell.
Immanentize
@Ruckus: Impressive! Yeah I bought my bike in Austin in 1993. A Trek 700 which was a high end bike then. Chrome moly! (Only) 15 gears! Grip shifters. But it is in great shape and if I get it tuned and parts replaced (today was a frayed shifter cable) it will go for another 25! Wish I could say the same for me….
NotMax
@Miss Bianca
If you should want to see him in a later in life role (not long after he sobered up) which he pulls off with aplomb, and can find it, “Crack in the World” (1965) is a taut little ‘global disaster’ film, devoid of the exaggerated visual theatrics one generally associates with that genre. Usually lazily described solely as a science fiction film, it fits into that category only in the same sense that “Frankenstein” does.
Hafabee
@Hafabee: Sorry, forgot to close the link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoH_nWpcHDE
J R in WV
@Immanentize:
Maybe you should take it to a shop that know how to fix it?
;-)
just kidding… I couldn’t help myself… I got me into more trouble in grades school because of that…
Steeplejack
@Miss Bianca:
Colbert’s quote ends at “gangrene on the body politic.”
ETA: What zhena gogolia said.
Miss Bianca
@NotMax: Ooh, never heard of that one – gonna have to put in the view queue. Jackals and their knowledge base are truly amazing!
WaterGirl
@Miss Bianca: He definitely said the first paragraph.
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@Gin & Tonic:
Damn that’s pretty goddamn bad. At least where I work our wage goes up a dollar or so gradually over 3 years.
Immanentize
@J R in WV: good one….
I was just thinking about my bike and I think the only original parts are the frame, pedals, one wheel and the front gears. Everything else has been replaced once or more times.
Ladyraxterinok
@Miss Bianca: Mom took me to this when it was revived when I was in jr high It was after Clifton Webb’s big hit Sitting Pretty, so it took audience a long time to realize he was the villain.
efgoldman
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?:
One word, junior: union
tobie
@Denali:
Front-pagers: Can we do something about autocorrect with Gillibrand’s name?
Did Gillibrand seem aware that in single-payer countries like France many people purchase private, for-profit supplemental insurance? I’ll look at her website to see if she has any specifics up about her proposal.
There is a site set up by the International Commonwealth Fund comparing global healthcare systems. Our own David Anderson would have to vouch for its reliability but it’s pretty easy to read and from what I can tell informative.
Ruckus
@MomSense:
Exactly, living most of his adult life in politics, with good pay, benefits and not weird schedules and a closed mind has helped him in so many ways. None of them realistic with the real world. He’s like his supporters, seems totally incapable of understanding that perfection is impossible, but especially perfection in the law. His major position seems to be, if only people would listen to me. Those of us who actually did listen said “You’ve got to be kidding.”
Redshift
@clay: Particularly since these particular alt-right types are unrepentantly doing far worse right now than he did back then (and had apologized for.)
japa21
@tobie: Is she aware that many Medicare recipients do the same, as Medicare is actually not that great of a coverage.
Brickley Paiste
@Immanentize:
Get those replaced, not adjusted – it’s a cheap fix and 25 years is beyond the life expectancy of friction grip shifters.
Ladyraxterinok
@NotMax: Mom said she remembered seeing him in WWII? movie where he played a low-level Navy guy who had to do serious surgery on a ship during a battle. I fell in love with him in Laura, so would like to see movie she remembered.
Ruckus
@Chetan Murthy:
Just doing the job he probably gets paid for. Any bets on who might want to pay him?
Dorothy A. Winsor
@tobie: That’s how Medicare functions for most people too. You buy supplemental insurance because Medicare covers something like 80%.
Major Major Major Major
Good morning, Juicers!
Brickley Paiste
@clay:
The previous tweets were quite obviously, joke poking fun at the ostensible sentiment they embodied. Disney shits on everything but money. Marc Maron said in his podcast that he was doing a show on some Disney owned network and he could not mention his podcast by name because Disney’s censors thought the public couldn’t countenance hearing the letters “WTF”.
With media conglomeration this is getting progressively worse.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I’d never heard of James Gunn till I started clicking around the tubes today, and I’m guessing this guy didn’t either
Holy Probably Pointless Political Opportunism, Batman!
tobie
@japa21: @Dorothy A. Winsor: Thanks. I gather that the cost for co-pays, dental, prescription drugs, etc. really add up if you don’t have supplemental coverage on Medicare. I’m not at the point where I have to look into this yet, but will be there soon enough and need to do my homework.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Just got my Podcast update and James Comey is the guest on Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me. Please tell me they brought Pierce back for that one
West of the Rockies
@Immanentize:
My old Bianchi Ospry is on its last legs. 25 years and thousands of miles on it. But a new bike sounds like so much fun!
Major Major Major Major
@clay:
I saw a tweet that said as far as employment goes, bad tweets are the new forearm tattoos. Kinda had to agree.
efgoldman
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Yup. I pay $97/month for what is essentially part D (Rx). I still pay copays (usually $35) for every specialist visit, and I have lots of them.
Citizen_X
@A Ghost To Most: Pfft. Traitors gotta fucking betray.
SFAW
@clay:
It would be sad/unfortunate if Cernovich were to go after the wrong person — someone who might “take exception” to Cernovich’s actions, in an up-close-and-personal way.
efgoldman
@tobie:
You HAVE to have supplemental if you’re on a transplant list, unless you’re very wealthy.
japa21
@tobie: @efgoldman: Part D is a cost burden, but straight Medicare (not Medicare Advantage) does pay only 80% after the deductible and there is no out of pocket cap.
Medicare Advantage plans, frequently have an Out of Pocket cap, many include part D, but they have more significant copays than regular Medicare.
SFAW
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Unusual for him to speak semi-nicely about Obama.
germy
Might as well laugh…
Michelle Wolf’s recruitment video for ICE.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNF6sVurAuI
Michelle does a Kirstjen Nielsen impersonation.
debbie
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
They did not. But Alonzo was pretty good.
germy
@efgoldman: Do you remember the spoken word record album Reagan put out about the dangers of Medicare?
efgoldman
@japa21:
Yup. I can choose three different premium/copay/cap levels. For med, the mid level balances premiums and out of pocked cost best.
tobie
@efgoldman: @japa21: This is difficult stuff. I should ask my employer if they host workshops about healthcare for employees approaching 65.
Ruckus
@tobie:
Look at how Medicare actual works now, how much it actually costs the consumer who uses it and it’s pretty obvious that Medicare for all would never work unless major changes were made. First, it isn’t free. You pay an amount every month out of SS. Then there are deductibles. If you want anything close to reasonable healthcare, at a time when most people need it most you have to have Medicare Advantage, in addition. That’s in $300-$500/month additional range. So we’re talking $450-$650/month. That’s not cheap healthcare for someone with only SS income or that very little non existent savings from that $12.78 per hr job at HD.
NotMax
@Ladyraxterinok
Drawing a blank on that, I’m afraid.
germy
@Ruckus: Expanded and Improved Medicare For All
https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/676
efgoldman
@germy:
No, but in thee summer of ’66 or ’67 working for a Boston public radio station I got to attend and record the entire “New England Rally for God, Family and Country”, basically a four day John Birch Fest. I learned that Ike was a commie fellow traveler, that medicare would put docs in jail, all kinds of good shit.
NotMax
@efgoldman
The insidious evil of fluoridation!
:)
Kathleen
@MomSense: May I sit next to you? And I don’t trust O C. The African American tweeters I follow don’t either. Did you see vid clip where she says “Let’s flip this seat red’ (paraphrase) while Bernie is smiling in the background?
Major Major Major Major
@efgoldman: Must not have stuck.
efgoldman
@Ruckus:
As noted, mine is $97/month (on top of medicare premium).
I’m pretty with it for an old guy. I don’t know how people that are even a little confused, deal with it.
Kelly
@tobie: @Ruckus: I’m 62 so I’ll need to figure Medcare out soon. I wonder who the David Anderson of Medicare is?
germy
@efgoldman: “Ronald Reagan Speaks Out Against Socialized Medicine”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bejdhs3jGyw
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@germy: @efgoldman: I don’t remember it firsthand, but Reagan’s melodramatic finish got a lot of play during the 09-10 debates, IIRC. People didn’t get it.
germy
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Was Reagan posing for magazine cigarette ads when he recorded the anti-Medicare album?
Major Major Major Major
@Kathleen: She’s not ready for prime time, but I’ve seen no reason not to trust her.
JPL
Trump’s tweets seem to be focused on how bad the NFL and FBI are, but no mention of the MS-13 gang. Maybe he’s saving that for next week.
japa21
@Ruckus: Medicare Advantage is in lieu of Medicare. Medicare Supplement Plans are in addition to Medicare. Part D is a separate policy from Medicare and is run through for profit insurance companies.
Kathleen
@A Ghost To Most: He fed into the media’s Sanders Slobber Syndrome so fuck hom. He’s part of the problem. As is Pierce. And Booman. Etc. Fuck em. I’m Irish and keep those receipts.
NotMax
@germy
Barely peripherally related, still funny.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Major Major Major Major: I agree. With exception of that odd spat with Crowley last week, she’s struck me as pretty level-headed, but I hope all the media/twitter attention isn’t turning her head. From what I’ve seen she could be really effective if she learns some of that no-drama stuff from that other guy who was unelectable for reasons.
Kathleen
@Gin & Tonic: Fuck Atrios too.
schrodingers_cat
@debbie: T needs to be reined in, by a D Congress, that’s inspiration enough for me.
rikyrah
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I think lowering the age for Medicare to 50 , or even , 55, would be a game changer.
Steeplejack
@Ruckus:
That $300-500 for Medicare Advantage sounds very high. Mine (through Kaiser) is $142 a month. And efgoldman says his is around $100.
Baud
@Kathleen:
You are Irish.
The Ancient Randonneur
It’s GG so let’s see if this actually happens.
Baud
@The Ancient Randonneur: Much rejoicing?
Kathleen
@Miss Bianca: Love. That. Movie.
germy
@The Ancient Randonneur:
B.B.A.
@The Ancient Randonneur: Hopefully extradition to Sweden on rape charges.
Citizen_X
A BJ catchphrase appears in public. Must credit Yarrow. Maybe it is Yarrow?
h/t Wonkette
japa21
@Steeplejack: I’ll give you two examples. I have Medicare Advantage. Costs the same as regular Medicare. Also includes Part D. However, I have much higher copays for any specialty care and higher end imaging (MRI and CT scans). Also, paid a lot for physical therapy post my shoulder surgery last year. Almost hit my total OOP of $5,000.
My wife has traditional Medicare, Part D through another insurer and a Medicare supplement plan. So she has the regular Medicare premium that comes out of her SS check. Between the Part D and the supplement plans she is at around $300/month. So over all, she is just over $400 per month. Is it worth it? This year, definitely.
Major Major Major Major
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I find her twitter snark—really any time she uses ?—so friggin annoying it just colors my whole perception of her.
Gelfling 545
@Denali: And it will never happen. These companies will always be around selling supplemental plans and such. And probably that’s a good thing as many working class people, largely female, are employed by them at, usually, a living if not great wage.
Kathleen
@Major Major Major Major: I know my opinion is not shared here and I’m not trying to stir shit up but I’m done with “The Left” and don’t trust any of them. In a ranty mood today.
Steeplejack
@Ladyraxterinok:
Mom might be misremembering Destination Tokyo (1943), which had an appendix operation performed on a submarine, but by William Prince, not Dana Andrews. They resemble each other somewhat.
Miss Bianca
@The Ancient Randonneur: What comes next, Glenn? Cats and dogs living together! Oooh…you getting *nervous*, for some reason?
Ruckus
@Immanentize:
Yes, even with the VA I pay more than $25/year to keep going. Quite a bit more actually.
My comment, #218 is really about that. How much would we actually pay for healthcare, if we averaged it out across the entire population? $300/month, $500, $1000, more? How much do we actually pay now? As you all are probably tired of hearing, I get my HC from the VA. But I have copays. In 2016 my copays totaled right around $3900. In a normal year it’s around $1200. Healthcare is not free, not for the vast majority. The ACA is not free. It’s far better than we had, but of course the right can’t have us getting better anything, some POC might actually not die from something simple. That poor white people are dying as well is just the cost of racism, or as the old saying goes just the cost of business. Our entire healthcare system is a mess, not just the payment/insurance side. It starts with medical schools, how many doctors manufactured per year and it goes all the way through to stop at the door of the undertaker. But you can’t fix it fully without fixing the economy and allow people to have actual livable wages, rather than working a full time job at $12.78/hr and that’s a second job. But you can’t fix that without the reasonable taxation of the very wealthy, who would still be fabulously wealthy if they paid their fair share. Making $500,000,000/yr really isn’t all that different than making $550,000,000. And having really cheap stuff to buy isn’t very economical if you have to purchase the same thing 4 times over the life of a product that costs 10% more.
We’ve worked our way into a wealthy nation’s mess, and there are no non painful ways out of the quagmire. There are no easy answers, no quick fixes, no savor on the horizon. The only issue is will the masses continue to have all the pain because we won’t even admit we are sick or will that pain be spread around, especially at the top, so that we can get better.
schrodingers_cat
@Kathleen: Can I sit next to you.
Major Major Major Major
@Kathleen: I totally feel you but I’m a benefit of the doubt kinda guy.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Major Major Major Major: I don’t follow her, but I’ve seen her push back against some of the claptrap and she’s better in it than a lot more seasoned pols I’ve see. When I was looking for that “flip the seat red moment”– my verdict, brain fart in absence of other evidence– all the clips were either Fox or Breitbart. I pick Fox, and Ed Henry smirked that she’s actually from “tony Westchester Country”. She’s got a good response to that to anyone who cares to try it out to her face. She’s a little too happy to be traveling with “Senator Sanders”– I don’t know if it would have bothered me more or less if she had called him “Bernie!”– but maybe that’s just her personality. And that man, his name, his face, the sound of his voice, is to me like a red cape in front of an already cranky bull.
I’m always leery of national figures weighing in on primaries, unless there’s a really compelling personal or policy reason. Campaigning against a Native American woman does not sit well with me.
Ruckus
@Immanentize:
Bicycle wheels. Yeah that was good money, rebuilding or building new wheels. It’s a part of the bike that everyone can see and feel when something goes wrong. Of course a lot of people didn’t have the money to just rebuild or to buy new…… Had a customer, young guy come in and ask about fixing his bike. It was a very old steel frame that had actually rusted through the tubing. Not all that uncommon living right by SF bay and bikes left outside. Only bike I ever turned away and refused to work on, definitely unsafe. He had gotten his moneys worth out of it for sure.
A Ghost To Most
@OzarkHillbilly: @zhena gogolia:
Yes. My cut/paste lost the embedded italics, and can’t edit. Apologies.
debbie
@schrodingers_cat:
True. For once, I can lower my expectations a thousand miles and they would still be more elevated than Trump.
A Ghost To Most
@zhena gogolia:
This. Thanks. FYWP.
B.B.A.
Bernie’s a shitstain, no question, but at the same time I can’t shed too many tears for Crowley and the Cuomo machine either.
A Ghost To Most
@Major Major Major Major:
Time will cure that.
NotMax
@Steeplejack
Yup. First film which came to mind but discarded it for lack of Andrews. Cary Grant and John Garfield – you can’t go wrong (although it cannot be denied some of it comes across as unabashedly racist today).
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@debbie: Peter Sagal took a pretty good shot, too! Won’t spoil it, just in case.
debbie
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I love that show. I’m generally apartment cleaning when it airs here, and there have been times I have been laughing so hard, I run the vacuum over my foot.
Immanentize
@Ladyraxterinok:
IMDB suggests it might be “A wing and a prayer” about the battle of Midway. Never saw it but Andrews sure was in a lot of WWII pics made during the war….
My favorite part of Laura is when he is always playing with his little game and one of the suspects yells — “Will you stop that? It’s driving me crazy!” And he replies softly, “Yeah? calms me down.”
This became one of the often used lines between my wife and me.
lgerard
Dana Andrews fans should check out Where the Sidewalk Ends, also with Tierney and with Otto directing
Gelfling 545
@Kelly: A person I know from The Center for Elder Law here advises a straight supplemental plan rather than Medicare Advantage. Apparently most of the problems they are approached to handle involve Medicare Advantage plans which are allowed to do some pretty slippery stuff. I am fortunate to have retiree insurance from my teaching job as my supplemental insurance for a modest cost. They are trying to goad us into changing over to an Advantage plan but given the advice from my contact at Elder Law and the fact that the school board has never done anything for the employees’ benefit willingly I’m hanging on to my old style supplemental.
Ruckus
@germy:
And how far will that bill go or did it go? The medical industry is a money maker for some and that will be fought tooth and some other body part. The ACA was a lot better as first proposed and got watered down quite a bit. And now the wonderful conservatives are trying to strangle the remains it in it’s hospital bed.
I think a lot of the problem as I stated above is that while we have a lot of info we really don’t have a handle on what the healthcare costs for 325+ million people are, because a lot of them don’t have coverage at all now, even with the ACA. We need an overhaul of the tax code to allow a program like you posted even come close to working. We need an overhaul of our medical system to actually have healthcare even if we could pay for it. We are horrible as a country at working through the needs of a major program because we talk big but rarely do all the grunt work of building a program and making it work for more than 4 yrs at a time because then the other political side gets or may get a go and fucks up the program. I had discussion after discussion with people who couldn’t understand why it took so long to implement the ACA, from bill passage to going live. Most people don’t look at the big picture, they look at the outline and say yeah or nay and move on. Look at bernie, he rides his hobby horse full speed but has no idea it doesn’t have legs or how to get it out of the stable, hell he doesn’t even know where the door is. Talk about your stable genius.
raven
@Gelfling 545: You are not in Georgia are you?
Frankensteinbeck
@The Ancient Randonneur:
Being dragged in front of a judge for jumping bail. The statute of limitations on the rape charges in Sweden are long over, but Britain’s a bit pissed he ducked out of their own legal system.
Immanentize
@lgerard: I’ve never seen that one, but I will. What a cast of layer famous.
You know what I love most about Gene Tierney? Yes she is so beautiful; but her overbite just makes her seem so real somehow.
Ruckus
@efgoldman:
Do you take full Medicare or only part D? Because when I turned 6fucking5 I looked at it, went to the SSA office and discussed the actual costs before I turned it down. I still get part A, as we all do, but I take nothing else and don’t pay the cost, which was at the time $110/month for part B.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@debbie: me too– Saturday is supposed to be my podcast and chores day. Which is why I’m posting on this thread so much.
Self-Cleaning Bathrooms/Free Roombas 2020!
Kathleen
@Kathleen: Merciful heavens I was not only ranty but ungrammatical. I blame Obama. And Hillary. And DWS. And commenting via “Smart” phone.
Kathleen
@Baud:
What comes next, Glenn? Screeds. Lots and lots of Greenwaldian screeds.
Immanentize
@Frankensteinbeck:
I am an anti-fan of Assange, but someone has to speak as a defense attorney here. He was never charged with rape in Sweden. The warrants he was avoiding were investigative warrants for questioning about the reports of assault. Europeans have a very different system than ours. The police investigate and then recommend charges to the judiciary. The investigation never got to charging phase. What was actually hinky about the warrants was that they were a very rare beast. The investigators could have (and I believed were offered) an opportunity to question him in England. But they were unusually, maybe uniquely, interested in his return. Which did raise questions about who might be behind that request.
If Ecuador gives him up, the Brits will arrest him and I and 94% certain we have already indicted him for his Snowden involvement. And now also indicted him for the DNC hacks. So, we will ask that he be held there and then extradicted here. Which the Brits will do.
Kathleen
@schrodingers_cat: Of course you can!!!! Always room for you, Ms. S_C!
NotMax
@Immanentize
Wondering if the Russian embassy is walking distance from the Ecuadorian one.
;)
Kathleen
@Major Major Major Major: I’m a Libra so natural inclination is to look at “both sides”. But when it comes to the kind of rodent procreation that’s been in play courtesy of Slanders and Company I immediately cast a wary glance at those who are in his court.
debbie
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
And laundry that folds itself!
lgerard
@Immanentize:
An interesting thing about Tierney. An episode of her life, her daughter being born with developmental issues due to exposure to Rubella during Tierney’s pregnancy, was borrowed by Agatha Christie as a plot for one of her books.
Immanentize
@NotMax: hmmm. I expect a fast jog. A sprint even.
Kathleen
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Saturday is my L&O SVU on Ion and cleaning day. The cleaning day part hasn’t kicked in yet.
Immanentize
@lgerard:
The mirror cracked!
I love that book too. And I love the poem the Lady of Sharlott from whence the title was ripped….
hueyplong
Odd how things that make Greenwald more anxious make me less so.
Ruckus
@Steeplejack:
@japa21:
japa21, your numbers were what I saw using the same type of program that your wife uses. I also have friends who pay the numbers that I talked about.
Steeplejack, as above, the numbers that I used were what I was quoted and have seen from friends.
A lot depends on exactly how you go about this Medicare thing. Look at japa21’s comment l replied to here. He takes Medicare one way, his wife another, it’s not as simple as some make it. And for someone with issues, the costs can be pretty big. Once again look at his comment. Notice that I have “free” healthcare at the VA. Believe me it ain’t free. Neither is Medicare. I’m using numbers that I was given by the SSA and by friends who use the system. I don’t use Medicare, I use government healthcare.
Immanentize
@hueyplong: was there any real information published about who Marcy Wheeler (Emptywheel) turned into the Feds? Was it GG?
Another lurker
@OzarkHillbilly: Same with the infinetly corrupt State of Fl.
hueyplong
@Immanentize: Can’t say I learned much about that from a quick consultation with Google.
Mr.Mack
Been lurking here for years and years, but I had to comment to ask if anyone has a link to that bizarre Roseann interview? I caught about five seconds of it and it looked like she was having a meltdown. Seriously weird.
zhena gogolia
@Miss Bianca:
I think his alcoholism held him back. But he is superb in quite a few movies.
Immanentize
@Mr.Mack: I saw a reference on Talking Points Memo, but I didn’t watch it. It all seems so sad.
zhena gogolia
@Ladyraxterinok:
That sounds like Destination Tokyo, but it was William Prince as “Pills.”
tobie
@Ruckus:
I’m assuming the double use of “stable” is deliberate and congratulate you on the rhetorical gem.
I had a thought the other day: if we didn’t spend so friggin much on our military, we could actually have a lot of nice things.
zhena gogolia
@NotMax:
I think it’s Destination Tokyo, and it’s not Dana Andrews.
zhena gogolia
@Citizen_X:
It’s from some Samuel L. Jackson movie.
zhena gogolia
@Steeplejack:
Ha, always read whole thread.
zhena gogolia
@Steeplejack:
I love that movie, because it’s such shameless propaganda yet Cary Grant never winks at the audience.
Calouste
@NotMax: Assange has spend the last five years digging a tunnel //
hueyplong
@Immanentize: You probably already know about this quote, but others might not:
“Well, my part’s going to be a surprise for virtually everyone, but some of what I know was in public. Some of what I went to the FBI with was, ‘Hey, look at this that’s public.’ I just was looking at it from a very different perspective than a lot of people. And that’s part of the core case, I think. Again, the reason I went to the FBI is because this person played a significant role in the election attack, not because … he sent me a text 15 hours after the polls closed making it very clear he knew exactly what was going on inside the White House. And this is not a Republican and not somebody who has any ties to Trump. …”
She later notes that the person is not Strzok (was originally going to spell it “Strozk” just to poke at a poster).
Greenwald doesn’t seem too inconsistent with her quoted words, and you could imagine circumstances in which a 2016 GG would have felt comfortable planting info with someone left of center, which is a way Marcy Wheeler has probably been described.
hueyplong
Link for Marcy Wheeler quote.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/7/17/1781419/-FBI-informant-Marcy-Wheeler-Mueller-is-sitting-on-a-lot
J R in WV
@efgoldman:
My dad was in the middle of being treated for leukemia with prescriptions that ran $4K a month, and forgot to write checks monthly for his supplemental Medigap insurance.
I will give my sister-in-law credit, she spent hours on the phone with his insurance co to get them to reinstate his insurance in return for immediate payment of the the backed up bills, something like 4 or 5 months at least.
Dad forgot to pay all his bills, that was just the most important one.
My health insurance comes out of my pension, and my Medicare comes out of my social security payment. I guess that makes me a parasite on the government, after working since I was 14?
Immanentize
@hueyplong:
At some point I thought she said he was also a journalist? Oh well, we will find out. It could be Julian? I can only hope!
Suzanne
@debbie:
There is likely not, at least not for a while, and we need to stop waiting. Obama is a unicorn. Work needs to be done in the meantime.
Mr.Mack
@Immanentize: Much obliged. Off to TPM.
J R in WV
@hueyplong:
I have to say, that headline is a very unethical attack on a reporter who is not an FBI informant. Reporters who provide information about a crime they learn while reporting on events are not police informants, they are good citizens performing their duty as a citizen.
But Daily Kos, so not a journalism site, not at all…
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@J R in WV: I heard Wheeler on the Pod Save America cast, and I couldn’t really follow what she was saying. I hope she knows more than she’s telling and it’s as bad for trump as she thinks it is
Ruckus
@tobie:
True but how can we be the worlds policeman if we don’t spend far more than everyone else to keep us safe from the 1950s?
And by the way we really don’t spend all that much if you consider the way our military is used and the way it’s abused. There is a reason the Pentagon has a hole in the center, that’s so the vortex of all the generals/admirals running in circles can suck in all that money. Our navy is extending the life of our ships out to where the color that you’ll be able to see is gray rust. The ships are undermanned and that causes accidents. The air force has planes that cost millions more per unit than the job requirements need, that are supposed to be better than the millennium falcon and fail miserably unless we spend even more so as not to look stupid. Foreign countries don’t want to purchase them because of the cost and maintenance issues and they work poorly. The army is spread so thin that the national guard does year long tours and people do multiple duties in war zones. We use contracted workers for a lot of things that used to be done by service personal, at a profit for the contracting company of course.
So yeah, we could be more realistic and spend less on the military but then we’d have to spend that money on things like providing better healthcare or tax cuts for the richest, who need it the least. So guess what we’d do……
Apocalipstick
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: “Medicare for All” is a good opening move. It’s an existing system, so it wouldn’t be a black box for most people, and it provides a framework for future improvements.
Ruckus
@tobie:
Also thanks for the writing comment.
I wrote the first bit and the rest just followed. You find a theme and run with it.
Apocalipstick
@tobie: Canada does the same thing. Universal coverage doesn’t necessarily mean single payer; Switzerland achieves UC at a fraction of US costs utilizing private insurance coupled with tight regulation and a very high medical loss ratio.
Ruckus
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I think that it was for most people, a code phrase for healthcare for all provided by the government. Most of the people I saw using it seemed to be using it that way. And I always asked, what do you know about Medicare and how it works now, not the way it was envisioned by people who had no contact with it. Most thought that it was provided free of charge. And it isn’t. Many of us here are over 65 and most use Medicare. I made a choice because I thought that the VA would be a better overall experience. But any large single healthcare provider will have issues and the VA is no exception. Care is pretty damn good, but it is not the best it could be. I’ve been in the system 6 yrs and I’ve had 6 different primary providers. That’s the person who does regular exams and checkups and sends you to specialists, cardio, neuro, etc. There is a level of bureaucracy that one has to negotiate but that’s true of any system of this size. I have a buddy going through what I went through 2015-2016 with cancer. I got far more info and help than he has gotten in the general public HC system. Everything explained, way past what was even necessary. And yet there are still holes to fall into. I know of a fella, army Vietnam vet/VA patient whose brother passed away in the VA hospital and he couldn’t get any info for 2 days or see his brother and was a total wreck. Yet when he did he said that the job the VA did was first rate and he was quite satisfied.
cwmoss
@West of the Rockies: Dusted off my 1989 Trek 1200 last year. Needed new shoes, but had to get new pedals in order to get new shoes because they don’t make cleats any more (not that I could find, anyway) for the old toe clip pedals that came with the bike. This spring, had a professional fitting done, and boy did that make a difference! I’m at 217# today, and when I get to 199, I’m getting myself a new bike. My sister, who has a newfangled crabon, picked up my bike and her only comment was, “Jesus, is this thing made out of lead?”
dopey-o
@OzarkHillbilly: If i understand correctly, medical marijuana will be on the missouri ballot in november ’18?
Yarrow
@Citizen_X: Not me, but glad to see it’s gaining in popularity!
jl
” hurricane, earthquake and erupting volcano. ”
Forgot tsunami, flash floods, plague or locusts and mutliple explosive forest fires converging in high winds.