We now know these two facts:
The FBI found Hillary Clinton’s email server was *not* hacked by foreign governments.
Donald Trump’s personal iPhone *is* being hacked by foreign governments, and he keeps using it in violation of security protocol.https://t.co/jD8Lbz9US4
— Ari Melber (@AriMelber) October 26, 2018
Another reason to vote Dem is that maybe “oversight” could become, you know, a thing again https://t.co/HTkWudPsUs
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) October 25, 2018
***********
Newt Gingrich is a two-bit hustler, but then, so is the Oval Office Squatter, so…
If Dems take control of the House and subpoena Trump's tax returns, Gingrich told @ktumulty that the legal fight would go to the Supreme Court "AND WE WILL SEE WHETHER OR NOT THE KAVANAUGH FIGHT WAS WORTH IT." Audible gasps in audience as he spoke: https://t.co/LkE6CbkUA1
— Mary Jordan (@marycjordan) October 25, 2018
Under-discussed implication of potential Dem full control in Michigan, Nevada, and any other likely battleground state w a Dem trifecta: Dem legislatures could send Dem govs bills to sign requiring a candidate to release their taxes as a condition of getting ballot access.
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) October 25, 2018
I don’t think it will matter, because I don’t think Trump will be their nominee in 2020. But if he’s still in a position to be renominated, would the GOP still renominate him if he has almost no conceivable path to victory?
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) October 25, 2018
***********
Also, too: At the first threat of actual oversight, the people actually carrying out Trump’s worst ideas will scurry for the exits…
The good news is, with any luck, she'll be resigning in fear of democratic subpoena power long before any starving kids get within her rifle scope. https://t.co/gI3rqGjKMu
— Zedward D Wood Junior (@Zeddary) October 26, 2018
Seriously, remember how Rumsfeld skipped town immediately after Dems took Congress in 2006? I bet Nielsen, Zinke, and more do the same bugout act if the House flips. In case you need added incentive.
— Zedward D Wood Junior (@Zeddary) October 26, 2018
OzarkHillbilly
Blech. Let’s throw everything out, including the Kirstjen Zinke.
OzarkHillbilly
They can’t even wait a day or 2.
JGabriel
Ari Melber via Anne Laurie @ Top:
That was obvious when Podesta’s emails were released. If the hackers had Clinton’s emails, they would have released those instead.
I mean, seriously, who gives a damn about John Podesta? Podesta’s emails were released because Podesta was the highest person in the Clinton campaign hierarchy that the hackers were able to hack – which is to say, Hillary wasn’t hacked, and that should have been obvious to everyone the day Podesta’s emails were published.
NotMax
Open thread, so –
Mentioned because there are some who are into it as a cultish, campy thing.
TCM showing both contemporaneous Dark Shadows movies this weekend, one at 1:30 a.m. Sunday, the other at 3:30 a.m. Being generous, all shall venture to say is that production values were not a high priority.
The real gem of the weekend is on at 12:01 a.m. Monday, the documentary Baby Peggy, The Elephant in the Room, about the first child superstar of the cinema, who is still among us at age 99 and is reputed to be the last still living silent film star.
JPL
@OzarkHillbilly: Of course he’s mentally ill. ugh
NotMax
A bit of less oppressive reportage with which to begin a weekend, the amazing Mr. Xu.
Debbie(Aussie)
If the shitgibbon should run in 2020 and he is not on the ballot in some states, can people who wish to vote for him write in his name?
I’m hoping that he is either in prison or on the run/ exiled to Russia.
NotMax
@Debbie(Aussie)
Some states permit write-ins, some do not.
OzarkHillbilly
@JPL: It’s enough to make one wonder if all white people are crazy.
Schlemazel
@OzarkHillbilly:
all people are crazy, only some people have the power ro get away with murder
Cermet
Amazing that if someone is a follower of Islam and commits violence resulting in a targeted murder they are instantly labeled a terrorist.
Certainly white violence against blacks over the years here in the u s of amerika is, by the very definition of the word, terrorism but the media won’t say that.
OzarkHillbilly
US lawmakers call on Trump to investigate human rights in Honduras
Good luck with that.
OzarkHillbilly
@Schlemazel: Not me, I’m the sanest person in the world. You people on the other hand, are bugnuts crazy.
Viva BrisVegas
@OzarkHillbilly:
Racism is a mental illness.
But it’s one that makes the afflicted more culpable rather than less.
Aleta
It’s not 6 am and the news has set my hair on fire twice already. I have to have a bucket of water with me at all times. Don’t have a dry pair of shoes left. The cats run past as fast as they can.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone ???
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@Cermet: law enforcement uses sophisticated technology to determine who’s a terrorist (photo)
?BillinGlendaleCA
@OzarkHillbilly: I was going to say exactly the same thing.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@Cermet: law enforcement uses sophisticated technology to determine who’s a terrorist
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DCxjaWBXoAImKYO.jpg
bjacques
If Dems win the House but not the Senate this November 6, it will be a farcical replay of Dolle Dinsdag (Crazy Tuesday), September 19, 1944, when the incomplete success of Operation Market Garden on the Rhine delayed liberation of the northern part of the Netherlands. A lot of collaborators (“moffen”) north of the Rhine fled to Germany, expecting complete liberation to occur shortly, not in the 7-1/2 more months that it actually took.
While cruel, stupid and expensive legislation would no longer be possible starting next January, Trump would unfortunately still have free rein to pack the judiciary for another two years.
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
OzarkHillbilly
@bjacques: Get used to it. The chances of DEMs taking the Senate have always been low. Blue wave or no the Senate and it’s electoral calendar is somewhat inoculated against it this year. The fact that there is a chance of DEMs taking it at all this cycle is near miraculous.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@OzarkHillbilly: OTOH, the Senate electoral calendar favors Democrats in 2020.
Baud
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I believe 2022 also. We have to keep the energy going.
Schlemazel
@OzarkHillbilly:
There’s no one left but me and the . . . And I’m not sure of thee
Schlemazel
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:
A paper bag is sophisticated? Who knew?
OzarkHillbilly
I have to disagree with Cole when he said, “In the history of political stunts, this is by far the dumbest, and will probably be the most expensive”, about the deployment of 800 US troops to our southern border. The Iraq war was a FAR more expensive political stunt.
Immanentize
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Bigly. In 2020 there will be 21 Republican seats and 11 Democratic seats (plus one or two for races that will be rerum from this year). And some of those are in blue or purpley places like — COLLINS in Maine.
OzarkHillbilly
@NotMax:
Thanx for that. Who doesn’t like stories about dinosaurs?
Matt McIrvin
This idea of Trump not being the Republican nominee in 2020 is such a fantasy. They’re solidly behind him! All of the scandals that have been revealed so far, his constant lying, all the indictments Mueller has already handed down–this has no effect on them. Why would Republicans abandon him?
NotMax
@OzarkHillbilly
Yup. 33 regular cycle elections plus 2 special elections to fill term remainders.
26 currently D-held seats up for election this year, 9 currently R-held seats. Dems would have to win 28 of the 35 contests in order to have a majority.
Kay
It comes directly out of the strikes. That’s where they organized and became politically active.
IMO the state races are the real story this election. A lot is going on! Maybe it’s good it stays under the radar. Once it’s identified nationally that probably means it’s over.
rm
@Debbie(Aussie): If states require tax records for ballot access alone, not only could people write in shitgibbon’s name, the Republicans could put a placeholder on the ballot who is not a crook, and then have the electors vote for Trump in the Electoral College if the R candidate wins.
I hope these state lawmakers have thought about how thoroughly the Rs cheat, and forbid the electors from voting for someone who wasn’t eligible for the ballot.
There’s also a movement to pass laws requiring the electors to vote for the winner of the national popular vote, which go into effect as soon as that law is in enough states that it makes the EC irrelevant. Another reason to get Dem state legislatures and governors.
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay: Teachers are awesome.
Butch
Of course obvious to everyone on this site but “don’t have any intention RIGHT NOW” to shoot at people seeking asylum? What kind of ghoul is she?
Kay
@OzarkHillbilly:
It’ll be just such a different viewpoint in state legislatures. Ohio is like “lawyer, lawyer, lawyer, businessperson, lobbyist/lawyer, insurance salesperson, lawyer”. Bust that up, by all means.
rikyrah
Bree Newsome (@BreeNewsome) Tweeted:
Again, any other prez before 45 would’ve been impeached already. 45 can’t be so easily removed b/c of his significance as a symbol
of white racial grievance in the aftermath of the USA electing its first non-white president. They can’t indict him w/o indicting white society https://twitter.com/BreeNewsome/status/1055574347732131841?s=17
Kay
@Butch:
She’s a ghoul who knows who she works for and has decided it’s easier and more profitable to fall in line.
I still think the bombs in the mail are going to bite her in the ass, though. She might want to stay off tv if she isn’t planning on doing her job. We know where she was when she wasn’t doing it. It’s like calling in sick and your boss sees you on tv at the baseball game.
rikyrah
@Kay:
The teachers are out there in the trenches.
Immanentize
@Kay:
Not the there’s anything wrong with lawyers….
OzarkHillbilly
Goatlanta: why exactly are there so many goats here anyway?
Women have to be especially careful around rutting goats.
rikyrah
Now we know that BC has been occupied with moving. But, how come Silverman hasn’t posted on the Florida Governor race?
I was looking forward to seeing it from a Floridian point of view.
bjacques
What Kay said. We Dems have been neglecting state and local races for decades. Flipping a number of states would make up a lot of ground and help blunt whatever damage Trump and his Imperial Roman Senate can do in the next two years. If we only flip one or two states, that at least puts to rest any prospect, bruited about awhile back, of lousy Constitutional Amendments being pushed through.
Ken
@OzarkHillbilly:
And they eat kudzu, so feeding them is no problem.
Kay
@rikyrah:
We had this letter to the editor in the local paper last week- no one recognized the name of the writer (we often recognize the Righties because it’s the same people over and over). Anyway it was why you should “never” vote for a Democrat- all guns and abortion. It got a lot of attention- the local Democrats were freaking out last night because they want a rebuttal, which I’m tasked with writing, which I agreed to do. Today we have same letter writer and it’s why “Aryans” are superior. I’m pleased. They let him dig his own grave.
I’m not going to “rebut” guns and abortion. Instead I’ll just do economic issues- I thought I’d add the deficit spending because I know it drives mainstream Republicans crazy.
A Ghost To Most
@Viva BrisVegas:
I disagree. It is a mindvirus, like religion. A communicable disease.
rikyrah
Adam B. Kushner (@AdamBKushner) Tweeted:
This is a CRAZY cover story by a lawyer at DHS lawyer, whose team warned the administration that separating families was illegal. Political appointees said they’d received no warnings about this, which, the author’s documents show, isn’t true. https://t.co/rrxVqDezKU https://twitter.com/AdamBKushner/status/1055555687860920321?s=17
SFAW
@Matt McIrvin:
Yeah, no shit. I’m ceaselessly amazed at the leaps of faith people make, i.e., that the Rethugs will do something non-horrible.
Re: Dana Houle’s idea that various states make releasing tax returns a condition to being on the ballot: please get back to us when that actually happens. I won’t be waiting by the ‘phone, however. Although, based on how he’s dealing with DeRacist, I could see Andrew Gillum pushing for something like that.
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay: Teachers spend every day of their working lives investing themselves in the future of our country. Something that has become politically problematic since Reagan. 47% of the electorate want nothing more than to get theirs and fuck everyone else.
OzarkHillbilly
@Immanentize: Wait a minute. If there is nothing wrong with them, why did they become lawyers? ;-)
rikyrah
Da phuq ? ?
Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) Tweeted:
“The FBI arrested a man in Town of Madison, Wisconsin, on Wednesday for ‘trying to buy radioactive material with the intent to kill someone.'” That man is Jeremy Ryan, losing GOP candidate for Wisconsin’s 1st Congressional District. https://t.co/iqqAs0W2UD https://twitter.com/Shakestweetz/status/1055447439963025412?s=17
SFAW
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Which is amusing to those of us that really ARE sane, i.e., that youse guys THINK you are.
SFAW
@rikyrah:
Too bad it wasn’t his brother Paul.
(No, I have no idea if they’re related. Just go with it.)
debbie
I’ve only been awake about an hour, but I’ve already changed my mind at least four times about voting today vs. voting on Election Day. To borrow a phrase from someone somewhere, blech.
Kay
@bjacques:
There are structural and ideological reasons Democrats ignore state races- they have traditionally focused on issues where national laws are better. Civil rights is one, but so are environmental laws and regulations on industry with teeth and enforcement heft. So it’s not all political. Some of it is bedrock values and those are important. It makes sense that we’d get teachers in state races because 90% of K-12 public education is state or local. National education laws are really civil rights laws. That’s their realm – they enforce civil rights in public schools, because civil rights can’t be a patchwork. You’ll never get “Democrats” to focus on state law like Republicans do because the two ideological frameworks are different, and we should value ours. It’s better :)
NotMax
@Kay
Health care. Don’t leave that out.
Baud
@rikyrah: I agree.
Baud
@debbie: Vote today.
debbie
@rikyrah:
It’s also quicker to just vote him out.
Tazj
@JGabriel: The press identifies the hacked emails as Clinton’s in headlines. In the past few days when there were articles concerning Roger Stone’s knowledge of the release of the emails the headlines read that they were Clinton’s emails. It’s understandable because it was Clinton’s campaign and not many people know who John Podesta is but I think many people assumed during the campaign and probably still believe her email account was hacked.
JR
@OzarkHillbilly: I looked him up. Repeated sex offender. Child molester.
Maybe they can call it what it is.
Kay
@OzarkHillbilly:
Too, they’re collaborative, right, in their work? That’s a different way of approaching the world. Fewer zero sum people would be a very different power structure. So many of them running is itself a collective action. It’s 1400 people running in the same direction instead of every which way. There’s power in that.
I’m ready to hire fewer assholes. The worst people running things is not a good long term plan. If we actually believed in cooperation and collaboration we’d hire fewer assholes, because you can’t get THERE with THEM. It just isn’t in them.
NotMax
@JR
Supreme Court material? //
Chyron HR
@rm:
That plan would require both Donald Trump and his supporters to be smart enough to understand it.
OzarkHillbilly
Kay
@NotMax:
Oh, I won’t. This is a low income county. Obama’s Medicaid expansion is literally the best thing that has happened to these people in my adult life. They no longer come in with judgments that are on their way to garnishment and they didn’t even know there was a court date. They bring it in and I have to tell them “that’s a judgment- it’s over- you lost”. I couldn’t have done anything for them anyway. They owe the money, they don’t have it- they will NEVER have it- and providers have to get paid.
Providers have gotten smarter too. They reduce the bill to an amount that won’t justify discharging it in bankruptcy, so they can garnish. If they’re working they’re going to pay that bill, which means they can’t pay their rent.
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
I think it’s more like Ashcroft’s color coding thing that always shot up to **ORANGE** before an election or other event.
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
Baby goats in pajamas: Priceless!
debbie
@Kay:
Those guys always overplay their hand. Have fun with the letter!
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@Kay: you could mention how tariffs are damaging farmers.
rikyrah
Uh huh
Uh huh ? ?
Maddow Blog (@MaddowBlog) Tweeted:
“The plan appeared meant as much to generate headlines to appeal to his anti-immigrant base and fuel outrage among Democrats and immigrant advocates … as it was to have a practical effect on immigration.”
https://t.co/ji6kJB4rVs https://twitter.com/MaddowBlog/status/1055639801406328832?s=17
rikyrah
Maddow Blog (@MaddowBlog) Tweeted:
RT @ezraklein: We spent 6 months talking to more than 100 people involved in administering, securing, or analyzing the safety of American elections
https://twitter.com/ezraklein/status/1055540917145284608?s=17
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay: Collaborative, yes, a very good word to describe how they approach their work. And for so many the “work” doesn’t end with a school bell. One Spanish teacher friend of mine used to take a couple dozen of her students on a 2 week trip to Spain every summer. This was not something she had to do, she wanted to do this so they could know a little bit of the wider world.
Her wake and funeral were amazing. Literally thousands of her former students came to pay their respects to her daughters. The line went around the block, and it was a loooonnnnggggg block
OzarkHillbilly
@debbie: Got to keep the masses frightened.
Baud
@Kay:
Maybe I should wait until 2024.
debbie
@Baud:
I’m thinking I won’t. Everyone around here is convinced that Democrats always vote early. Republicans calibrate their last-minute efforts based on that turnout. I like the idea of swooping in like a stealth fighter and voting straight Democrat on Election Day. Let them know they are never safe. I also like the bake sale at my polling place. A homemade chocolate chip cookie at the end of the day is very satisfying.
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
Ashcroft would be jealous:
JPL
@rikyrah: Lies, lies and liars. Unless the house flips, they will continue to sweep them under the rug.
Baud
@debbie:
It’s worse than that. We’re also not going to let them eat out in peace.
debbie
@Baud:
Better we storm their Creation Museum and confiscate their fake artifacts. Nothing will be safe!
Kay
@NotMax:
One of the things that really disappoints me about Lefties is they don’t give Obama credit for Medicaid expansion. It is life-changing for millions of people. It is the single biggest expansion of the safety net in my lifetime and they consider it a failure. That’s just wrong and oddly…clueless. I would go so far as to say it’s elitist.
They can’t have know how bad things were for working class without health care access and not credit Obama with this. I used to see people who had to go to work with their faces all puffed up with dental infections. I met a carpet installer who set his own broken hand. I imagine hands are complicated so unsurprisingly he fucked it up and it was a claw. It was horrifying. Real suffering. Undiagnosed cancer, then weirdly and suddenly gravely ill at 40 or 50 years old, then they DIE. They could not afford medical care and now they can. Obama did that and he did it for people who wouldn’t vote for a black guy if you paid them. Kasich became a believer and he should be- it worked. There is measurably less suffering in the world as a result of that law. To not even mention it? You can’t say you care about working class people then. You don’t.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: Yeah, kinda leaves me out too.
gene108
@OzarkHillbilly:
I have a history of mental illness, and even at my worst, when I was actively psychotic and having auditory hallucinations, I was still able to work out shooting people is bad.
Mental illness is not a catch all fucking excuse to remove blame for bad behavior. Millions of people have mental health issues and are not shooting people in grocery stores.
OzarkHillbilly
@debbie: ‘Our faith compels us’: Christian resistance to Trump gathers steam
It’s nice to see this, and long overdue, but I question their ability to influence Christian voters. Repubs and Evangelical leaders have been demonizing DEMs for even longer than they have Hillary.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Kay: Good point about Medicaid.
@gene108: Good point about stigmatizing mental illness by using it to excuse violence.
BJ is educating me, as usual.
My FBI friend speculates it will be only days before the person sending the bombs is identified. Friend is madly jealous of colleagues working on the case. Friend lives for this kind of thing.
Jeffro
@Matt McIrvin:
I hear you, but I think there’s other things to consider:
– Trumpov’s base hasn’t abandoned him, but it’s clear that some small percentage of Rs have become “reluctant, gotta-vote-D-until-Trumpov’s-out” D voters. An even bigger percentage of independents has already swung towards the Ds.
– eventually, the Mueller investigation will conclude and bring charges (against Stone, Page, Jared, Don Jr, Trumpov himself)
– other financial crimes investigations about Trumpov and the Trumpov Org are going to continue to roll on, and on, and on…
– the GOP powers-that-be/donors surely know that the 2020 election will have a major, major impact on redistricting, and they’ll want the strongest possible candidate in there
– Kasich is, I think, going to take a shot at primarying Trumpov. Not that he’ll win, but that should weaken the party even further
I don’t think he’ll be on the GOP ticket come 2020 – truly, the possibilities are endless – but at this point I almost hope he limps to their nomination.
OzarkHillbilly
@gene108: Most people have mental health issues and most people just deal with them in whatever ways get them thru the day.
montanareddog
@OzarkHillbilly: Great to see the Guardian visiting a “red” state (I hate the term “Cletus safari”, so sneery) and showing that it is not wall-to-wall knuckledraggers. It is so obvious that urban areas are not 100% Dem and rural areas are not monolithic Gooper but you would not get that impression from the usual MSM narrative.
Ken Shabby
@Baud:
Sure do. For more than a decade, I believe. First, 2018, from whom all blessings flow. Without that it is, as they say – mute.
Kay
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
It seems politically dumb to bash Obamacare too. if it were me and I wanted universal coverage I would point to the people who have it and say “you could have this too” instead of saying “the government health care plan sucks”. I feel like it’s ego- like they can’t give it to him because then they wouldn’t own the issue. It’s turf protecting. It comes from a bad place.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
Mail bombs sent to James Clapper and Cory Booker where just intercepted.
JPL
Two more bombs have been intercepted, one to.Clapper and the other to Booker.
Betty Cracker
Morning visitor!
Kay
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:
The DHS head is going to regret choosing to promote Donald Trump’s racist fantasies rather than working on this. Bad call on her part. She should have stuck with doing her job- you really can’t go wrong doing that. She has priorities problems at work. Maybe they should replace her with someone competent.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Betty Cracker: No swimming, Betty.
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
This is great, but I wish they had been louder from Day 1
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
One of my sisters sometimes reads the site (she’s a committed lurker in all things) and she loves your Florida pictures. The frogs and birds and flowers- so different from ours.
OzarkHillbilly
@Betty Cracker: Hooray! You’re definitely in the right place, Betty.
NotMax
@Betty Cracker
Wow, they can thrive at that dizzying altitude?
;)
ET
I somehow won’t be surprised if the reports about the pipe bomber operating out of Florida end up being true.
OzarkHillbilly
@debbie: Some of them commented on their reluctance to getting involved in politics. I am sympathetic. I too feel politics should be separate from religion. Too bad those on the right don’t agree.
dmsilev
@Betty Cracker: So, if we ever need to dispose of a body we should come visit you?
(no particular immediate need, but I always like to know what my options are. Just in case.)
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
Agreed.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
12 bombs.
Have to think MSNBC personalities and Jeff Bezos (owner of WaPo) will be next.
montanareddog
@ET:
If only they could link it to Roger Stone or one of his acolytes.
OzarkHillbilly
@Betty Cracker: My NOLA son lives across the street from a canal. When I was down there helping him deal with all the issues after his accident, I would get up before the sun and take his dogs for their morning walks. He warned me to watch out for gators. While most of the time I was there it was pretty cold for NO and I did not see any, during a walk one warm morning, sure enough, I spotted one.
Ken Shabby
@Kay:
Started out in the trades as a carpenter and, after a career having nothing to do with that and clean clothes in bargain, ended up there, as a house painter. Five years ago, during initial consultation for hernia surgery, I was informed that I could do something about it at my age whereas the 45 year old Mexican man prior to my visit was without resources.
It was the way it was said. >shrug< he’s a Mexican laborer and, anyway, what can you do.
I can see where healthcare professionals are worn out after decades of this trainwreck but listening to any person’s future be written off or referred to vaguely as some kind of destiny and, by a highly skilled, educated physician was ….well, yes, it didn’t surprise but it still shocked.
Inferred: we’re both white so, I can casually suggest that.
I’ve never been around any trades folk who are not some patchwork of compensators, Aleve, other, stronger drugs, wraps, back braces. And little to any healthcare.
That’s just the way it is. And, dental care? Forget it.
At lunch, radio? Limbaugh. It’s Fun.
Matt McIrvin
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I’m glad to hear they are investigating it. Wouldn’t put anything past the executive branch at this point, including trying to slow-walk this.
NotMax
@Betty Cracker
“Fun facts.”
Steve in the ATL
@OzarkHillbilly: violent, racist man with diminished mental capacity named Bush? Why, that’s unheard of in this country!
OzarkHillbilly
@dmsilev: I know of some holes in the ground that are guaranteed to never get visited. I hold them in reserve just in case.
Matt McIrvin
@Kay: The general identification of “Obamacare” with the exchanges was a huge propaganda coup for the right, especially when the exchange website launched in a broken form. I often see even liberals talking this way. But the Medicaid expansion was really the most important part, and the hole that SCOTUS blew in it by allowing states to opt out was the cause of its biggest failures to cover people.
Baud
@Kay: I’ll never forgive people who kept Obamacare polling red while Obama was in office and who switched to supporting it only when it was at risk.
kd bart
@David Merry Christmas Koch: Wilmer’s probably wondering why he doesn’t merit one.
JPL
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: Elizabeth Warren and Nancy Pelosi are next unless the person blows himself/herself up first.
JPL
@kd bart: omg.. it’s a wilmer bro
Matt McIrvin
@debbie: My mother has said she doesn’t want to vote early because there are a bunch of under-covered local races on her ballot, and she wants to go to the candidate forums that are being held in order to hear what they have to say before voting. This kind of thing can be particularly important for officially nonpartisan races without a primary, which city and town races often are.
OzarkHillbilly
@Ken Shabby:
Was working with an electrician from Texas on one job. He told me a story of coming into work on a Monday morn and finding the Mexican they had left there on Friday to do “just one more thing” fried to a crisp with his hands in the main panel. His foreman said only, “Get this fucking wetback off my jobsite!” They dumped the body somewhere.
And yeah, it was a “funny” story.
Ken Shabby
OTOH:
https://twitter.com/BarstoolBigCat/status/1055580145292099586?s=20
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Matt McIrvin: Has anyone here used the Ballot Ready site? I found it hard to figure out what to click on, but once I was there, they gave a list of candidates tailored to my district, each one linked to things like ABA ratings for judges. It’s good for all those local races with candidate you never heard of.
gene108
@OzarkHillbilly:
Yup
geg6
So now it’s Booker and Clapper targeted. I sure hope every Dem and former federal law enforcement/CIA officer/administrator is checking their mail.
Ken Shabby
@OzarkHillbilly:
Yep.
This is years ago now, mid 80s. Went out to help a buddy with his and partner’s business. We were remodeling a restaurant. This was truly a L.A. crew: partner was from then-West Germany, hiding from officials and successful at it, one carpenter was Israeli, another finish carpenter was from Montana (that poor soul…good guy), another laborer was from Denmark and, the rest of the crew was Mexican laborers. He paid them $20/hr, cash, every Friday. Going rate then – far less now – I asked him about that. A good crew.
“Almost all these guys are Illegal. Most contractors promise $8/hr, pay when entire job is complete, either pay sporadically or stiff them full amount, at conclusion.”
This shit is *decades* old and, in office work, is referred to as Intern. In colonial times, Indentured Servitude. I hate saying this but, when I leave room in my brain for this shit, yes – I hate these people.
This, on a better note: helped for a week, and two of us borrowed Günther’s truck/camper and split for Yosemite, for a week in April. Had the place to ourselves. Camped in a meadow high above the Merced, among other things.
Steve in the ATL
@Kay:
Too late. Got a postcard yesterday on my local state senate race–postmarked San Francisco. Pelosi’s tentacles are everywhere!
Barbara
I don’t think the first thing trifecta Dem legislatures should do is impose conditions for getting on the presidential ballot. I think the first thing they should do is rationalize and facilitate voter registration and voting rights. Requiring release of tax returns will stop basically one man, whereas, facilitating voting rights will be paying dividends for years and years for all kinds of candidates at all levels. Yes, they could do both, but what I am saying is, spend political capital on voting rights not stopping Trump after the horse has already left the barn.
Barbara
@Steve in the ATL: I have been unwilling to dive into state level races because I am not sure how people receiving postcards will view an effort to influence the election from out of state. Postcards just telling you to vote and which elections are being held and how important they are would be okay.
OzarkHillbilly
@Ken Shabby: A dog that knows what’s good.
Ken Shabby
@OzarkHillbilly:
Stopped by to add:
Guess who showed up early every goddamn day and worked late? Available Saturday? If I’m not working my other job, yes.
What a concept. If you treat some people right, they act right. I think it’s in the Bible somewhere …
Kay
@Matt McIrvin:
That’s why I think it was elitist though. One could never make that identification if one were on Medicaid. People who got Medicaid weren’t confused at all- they knew two things- they didn’t have any coverage and then they had full coverage. I don’t know how they’re warriors for the downtrodden working class and conflating Medicaid with the rest of the law. It was pretty damn clear to people who benefited.
I feel like there was some ick factor- only icky poor people use Medicaid so that must be less valuable and worthwhile. Like Medicare is the premium product and they can’t be bothered with the lesser brand.
Ken Shabby
@OzarkHillbilly:
: D
OzarkHillbilly
@Barbara: Requiring release of tax returns will stop basically TWO men, FTFY, you’ll get my bill in the mail.
Barbara
@Kay: Regarding Medicaid Expansion: On the one hand, I agree with you totally, Obama deserves credit especially for Medicaid expansion, which is actually the much more consequential piece of the ACA that “nobody” talks about. A generation of demonizing poor people with Medicaid has made politicians reluctant to claim any kind of victory over Medicaid as something to crow about. On the other hand, its “on the down low” status has meant that millions of people are getting access to health care without being turned into political footballs. I am convinced that the sleeper aspect of Medicaid is why many Republicans were so surprised at the ferocity of the resistance to ACA repeal. They really didn’t know (shame on them) how many working people had Medicaid coverage through the ACA. Not exchange coverage, Medicaid coverage. My brother was receiving expanded Medicaid when he died. He spent close to two weeks in total as a hospital inpatient. And, of course, many of the most rabid repeal voices come from those in non-expansion states. E.g., Paul Ryan in Wisconsin.
Barbara
@OzarkHillbilly: You can’t charge for advice that wasn’t solicited.
WaterGirl
@rikyrah: Holy shit. My eyes got wide when I read that, and wider still when I went back again and realized that I had not misread it.
Honestly did not know my eyes could open that wide.
Just when you think you can’t be shocked anymore — only disgusted, appalled and enraged — they do it again.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: There will definitely be more pictures from my new digs! I have to keep reminding myself I’m supposed to be working and to stop looking out the window and leave my camera alone! :)
@OzarkHillbilly: I’m definitely conscious of the danger gators pose to the doggos. We have a sturdy fence and gates that are firmly latched between them and the river. Neither are water dogs, so they don’t bolt for the river, but still, I don’t want them any where near it unless they’re leashed. I learned as a child to always be on the lookout for gators and snakes. Even when I lived in Massachusetts, I couldn’t break the habit of approaching any body of water cautiously.
Ken Shabby
@OzarkHillbilly:
and, Barbara
+ prison time.
Not fines.
Everyone will git Religion, ratt kwik, tyew.
Kay
@Ken Shabby:
I think you could accurately track the income of an area by looking in the drug store and seeing how many OTC dental remedies there are.
They’re gargling anbesol and clove oil to kill the pain. It can be really fucking depressing. You’re thinking “I live in a 3rd world country” – I mean, honestly. They can’t get antibiotics? They’ll just be working with a raging infection? The misery index dropped a few points with the Medicaid expansion. It’s 700k people in Ohio. That’s a lot of people.
schrodingers_cat
@Matt McIrvin: We can thank baby Broder, Ezra Klein for that. He lead that charge.
WaterGirl
@debbie: Vote today. The Dems can take you off their contact list AND there’s no chance that some unexpected emergency would keep you from voting on election day.
I vote in EVERY election, except there was a work emergency and I didn’t get to vote for Barack Obama in the Illinois primaries when he was a candidate in the democratic primary for the senate.
After that, I always voted early. There’s too much in life that we can’t control.
Kay
@Barbara:
The real sleeper in Ohio was not Medicaid patients, it was providers. They don’t want to have to collect. They don’t want to have to garnish and write off 40% in uncompensated care. They want to do what they do, which is provide medical care.
Rural hospitals were going broke and they’re not optional- you can’t demand people drive 60 miles to a hospital. Medicaid expansion rescued rural health care providers. Sherrod Brown told us in ’12 that all the Ohio Republicans who were demonizing Obamacare were quietly lobbying for Medicaid expansion, because providers have to get paid. It was another bullshit game they played.
OzarkHillbilly
@Barbara: Au contraire, I can charge you for that brand new Mercedes I never delivered. ;-)
OzarkHillbilly
@Betty Cracker:
Wouldn’t surprise me in the least if I got eaten on my next visit to NOLA.
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay: I once worked with a plasterer who used Everclear soaked cottonballs to kill the pain.
Barbara
@Kay: It’s not always the case, but when their interests are aligned, providers can be a good proxy for amplifying the voice of patients in their influence over state legislators.
WaterGirl
@geg6: One of my worries is that with the number of bombs in the mail, the chances of something accidentally exploding in transit seems pretty high — before it can even get to the places where they check for those things.
And if that happens, anyone hurt will be considered “innocent” by the media. You know, as opposed to the intended recipients. :: screams with rage and frustration ::
Kay
@Barbara:
One of my big regrets with Hillary is she really did know health care. It’s a system. Changes have to be systemic. The conservative ideology won’t accommodate anything that will work. There’s not endless ways to do this- there’s like, oh, FIVE. We’ve debated all of them. We don’t have to go back over it every four years. Five. Pick one.
Now I have to listen to them pretend they can cover preexisting conditions with a stand-alone law, which I already heard in 1994.
Chyron HR
@Barbara:
No, it stops every Republican from now on, since all of them are going to run under the new Trump rules unless there’s an actual law against it.
Jinchi
David Brooks March 2016:
David Brooks Today:
(but in a good way)
Kay
@OzarkHillbilly:
It was a management fad and it’s passed, but manufacturers went to bonuses for attendance. The schemes were complicated so I think it probably collapsed under it’s own ridiculous weight, but they had “perfect” attendance and then “perfect -perfect” at one big employer here. So they would DRAG their asses in there close to death because it meant 4 or 5 or 6 thousand dollars and the ante upped as the calendar year passed. By Christmas they were going in there with open, weeping wounds. Don’t make people who are sick go to work to get their bonus. Bad idea.
Tenar Arha
@Kay: Yep. Trying to play a 50 state defense doesn’t work when only the federal government might be big enough to fight the myriad multinational corporate or foundation lawsuits any state regulatory framework might cause. It’s duct tape kluge of last resort. (It’ll help a little, but at this point anything would).
schrodingers_cat
@Jinchi: He has no morals, that “humble” man.
Kay
I get a weird kick out of this because I feel like I know the type of lawyer Kavanaugh is and his image is hugely important to him. That’s why we saw all that puffed-up offended “honor”. He sees himself as a briliant jurist and his fellow GOP hacks keep fucking that up for him by blurting out the truth. He wants them to shut up so bad but they won’t. Ever. Trump talks about him like he’s a servant. It’s fucking cringeworthy and I know in my heart that Mr. Georgetown Prep is cringing because image is everything to him.
catclub
actually, no. GWBush was planning on firing him, and waited until the midterms to do it.
Kay
@Tenar Arha:
Right, and if you really look at a lot of Democratic laws, on everything from education to immigration, what they are is civil rights laws. They’re about equity and equal access. That has to be federal. That to me is why there can’t be really be bipartisanship with modern Republicans. That’s a bright line. You either believe in uniform civil rights for the whole country or you don’t. They don’t. They won’t enforce federal civil rights laws, whether they’re in education or immigration or voting. This is a big difference! It’s not a disagreement. It’s a profound division and there can’t be compromise. So we can bitch about Democrats not working on taking states, but we have to recognize that they are prioritizing the right things- basic national civil rights, THEN state law.
bemused
@rikyrah:
Trump, the WH and GOP are not republicans. They are the Proud Boys Party.
Steve in the ATL
@OzarkHillbilly:
@Schlemazel:
My family, white people all, is full of artists, so the truth of both these statements is deeply embedded in me, and my career as a lawyer has done nothing to diminish it.
bemused
@rikyrah:
Republican’s “best” people.
Kay
@bemused:
Does President Trump only hire bad people or is it self-selecting- only bad people would agree to work for President Trump?
Doesn’t matter- same result. Let’s hope there’s some good career people!
Barbara
@WaterGirl: They aren’t saying a whole lot about the bombs, other than people have to assume they are dangerous. They won’t say, for instance, whether any of the devices were active, or whether they only looked like they might be. It’s also the case that some but not others might be active and sending so many is a way of covering up your actual target. Believe it or not, the DC sniper’s plan was to kill a lot of people in order to cover up for the fact that his real intended victim was his ex-wife, who was somehow going to be killed in a similar manner at some point.
Steve in the ATL
@bemused:
Tallest midget,etc.
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay: The lengths they will go to to prevent a “work loss injury” is unbelievable. I have spoken here of a laborer I used to know who *worked* for 6 months with a torn rotator cuff and bicep tendon. They had him operating an elevator and going to PT with their fingers crossed and prayers every morning hoping for a miracle.
tobie
@debbie: Far be it from me to tell anyone how to exercise their franchise…but I think it would be better to vote today, so you’re free to help out the local Democratic party if they need it in the run-up to election day. I say this as someone who voted absentee this year and really missed the excitement of going to the polls for early voting but I also wanted to be able to hand out literature at the polls without having to worry about when I’d have time to cast my own ballot.
OzarkHillbilly
@Steve in the ATL: Artists (rolls eyes) I love them. But damn, what a pain in the ass.
schrodingers_cat
@Steve in the ATL: We are all mad here.
Mike in NC
All of the pipe bombs mailed to Democrats have been traced to Eric Trump!
OzarkHillbilly
@Mike in NC: Damn. I had my money on Jr.
germy
@OzarkHillbilly: I was in a restaurant in Saratoga once, and the waiter told me the employees were told by management “No sick days allowed during track season.”
I made a mental note to myself NOT to visit during track season. I imagined chefs sneezing onto the dishes, waiters rubbing their noses while handling my cutlery.
tobie
@Matt McIrvin: You’re absolutely right that Obamacare is so much more than the exchanges and so few people seem to recognize that. Only 16% of the public buys health insurance individually (and some of that is supplemental insurance for Medicare recipients). The remaining 84% are on Medicare, Medicaid or employer-provided insurance. For me, personally, the most important thing has been the essential health benefits. Annual exams, flu shots, etc. are now free. This ends up being a big cost saver.
germy
@Mike in NC: I stills say it’s kavanaugh getting his revenge
Kay
@OzarkHillbilly:
My son’s doing a new electrical installation at a Ford plant. I don’t understand it, really, but they used to put these on the roof and now they run lines underground so it’s “new” in some way. He’s the apprentice so that means he’s digging, which is making him very unhappy :)
He’s so young. He can dig. I felt indestructible at his age. I was surprised though because he was portraying this as so 21st century and it’s like “dig? with a shovel?” You’d think they’d have a steam shovel or something :)
Gin & Tonic
@Kay:
He can find solace in the bottle. He seems to have ample experience there.
germy
“What made Milwaukie famous made a supreme court justice out of me…”
bemused
@Kay:
It’s both. It’s two, two mints in one.
No rational adult would want to work in that WH. You’d have to be just as amoral and corrupt to want the job or just give up any decent tendencies you may have had to stay there.
J R in WV
On this health care thing — it still isn’t fixed, not at all for many people!
Just the other day a local mega church that’s a little more practical held a weekend health care clinic with dental, vision medical clinic. They started at the crack of dawn, like 6 am, and people were lined up at midnight waiting in line. Dental problems can not only be agony from all the nerves in your face and mouth, they can be fatal.
Plus glaucoma can blind a person quickly and with no treatment if left to progress, yet is simple and inexpensive to treat and prevent in most cases, just special eye-drops as prescribed. Without those drops your optic nerve is destroyed by over-pressure inside your eyeball, permanently.
Or you could wait to hear about a free clinic somewhere, and go to stand and wait all night long to see if they could deal with your raging dental infection, and by the way, how come I have trouble seeing to drive at night?
You know why so many people look odd in old time pictures from 150 years ago? Because they were in agony and it hurt a tiny bit less if they were motionless, but only a tiny bit — so still in agony. All the time, agony. And poor people still are, all the time, in agony. Just deal with it, right !!
J R in WV
@Chyron HR:
This whole “release your tax returns” thing worries me. Anyone can get the paperwork and rewrite their tax forms to be inoffensive, and release those edited forms. How would anyone disprove that information? It’s illegal for the tax services to release a single word from anyone’s tax return, ever.
Why didn’t Sanders and Trump both have their captive accountants put together a tax return that would make the most bleeding heart liberal proud? Tis a puzzlement!!!
opiejeanne
@WaterGirl: I’m beginning to think that Republicanism as it is currently exhibited is a mental illness.
opiejeanne
@OzarkHillbilly: We had a neighbor in SoCal, in an upper middle class neighborhood who was gargling hydrogen peroxide because of a rotting tooth. I don’t know if he couldn’t afford to see a dentist or was just too scared of the dentist to do so.
My sister’s ex did the same thing after he lost his dental and health insurance that he had while he was working for Disney as a regular on the Suite Life of somebody or other. He was Norman the Doorman. He still works as an extra, he’s late 70s, and he lives in a trailer with no running water or electricity at the back of an abandoned estate in Pasadena. He’s mentally ill, no doubt about it, but he shouldn’t have to live like this.