Ted Nugent is talking again, and he’s saying things – crazy things.
He’s saying wistful things about the Civil War and how it might have been better if the South had won.
by Imani Gandy (ABL)| 68 Comments
This post is in: Crazification Factor, Kiss My Black Ass, Fucked-up-edness, Peak Wingnut Was a Lie!, Romney of the Uncanny Valley, Serenity Now!, Seriously
Ted Nugent is talking again, and he’s saying things – crazy things.
He’s saying wistful things about the Civil War and how it might have been better if the South had won.
by John Cole| 37 Comments
This post is in: Our Failed Media Experiment
This Scotusblog post on how many got the intital ACA ruling wrong is a really fascinating read, but two snippets just stood out to me and made me sigh:
Elsewhere, others are picking up the story from CNN and Fox. Back at the Court, the Huffington Post’s reporter, Mike Sacks, has not yet filed a story on the ruling. Their social media team does not wait, however. Taking the news from CNN without attribution, it tweets – “BREAKING: Individual mandate has been ruled unconstitutional by Supreme Court.”
Yep. That’s the HuffPo’s MO. The this:
Observing the controversy and taking care not to make an error, The New York Times (whose own reporter Adam Liptak is still in the Courtroom) puts up a simple banner (at 10:09): “Supreme Court Rules on Health Care Law.”
That’s our gray lady alright, timidly leading from behind.
by John Cole| 77 Comments
This post is in: Domestic Politics
Via an emailer, this story of what Mayor Chris Doherty (D) is doing to his city workers is pretty shocking:
In defiance of an injunction issued in Lackawanna County Court, hundreds of city employees will open their checks today to find they were paid only minimum wage for their work.
Amid Scranton’s ever-deepening financial crisis, Mayor Chris Doherty said his administration is going forward with a plan to unilaterally slash the pay of 398 workers to the federal minimum of $7.25 an hour with today’s payroll, insisting it is all the city can afford.
That will likely earn administration officials an appointment with Judge Michael Barrasse, who granted the city’s police, fire and public works unions a special injunction temporarily barring the administration from imposing the pay cuts after a brief hearing Thursday.
Mr. Doherty, who did not attend the hearing, said afterward he understands and respects Judge Barrasse’s perspective, but the city lacks the cash to meet the full payroll.
“We have enough money to make the minimum payroll,” Mr. Doherty said. “The judge can rule against us, but I don’t know how to pay the money. … We’ll pay them as much as we’ve got, but that’s what we’ve got.”
Business administrator Ryan McGowan said the city transferred $311,000 – the amount needed to cover the minimum-wage payroll – to its payroll processing vendor, leaving about $5,000 in the bank Thursday. City officials have said the pay cut is temporary, and employees will be made whole once the city’s cash-flow situation improves.
Union attorney Thomas Jennings vowed to seek a contempt citation against the city if employees receive less than their full pay today.
“If the checks come out with anything other than the wages they are entitled to, they (city officials) are in contempt of Judge Barrasse’s order,” Mr. Jennings said. “Then it’s no longer just Tom Jennings they are messing with. They are messing with a far greater power.”
Although I am sure there are some folks wearing leather jackets and hipster glasses who make 100+k a year in wingnut welfare for a glibertarian magazine that can’t turn a profit who think minimum wage is all these city workers deserve.
by Kay| 77 Comments
This post is in: Domestic Politics, Open Threads
The former governor of Minnesota was in Pennsylvania recently acting as Mitt Romney’s surrogate because Mitt Romney was unwilling or unable to appear personally:
Although he campaigned on being a champion of the middle class, Pawlenty said Obama’s policies have destroyed small businesses by imposing a new tax – the AHCA’s individual mandate – as a regulation on small businesses.
Pawlenty is lying. I think we’re going to be hearing this lie a lot by Republicans and (of course) it will go completely unrebutted by media, because God forbid people should actually find out what’s in this law. That would be unfair to Republicans, because Republicans don’t have a health care law. You see the third grade logic here, I’m sure. “Having a health care law” is an unfair advantage for that Lucky Duck Obama and the Democrats. Unfair! Level the playing field, pronto. Don’t ever mention what’s in the law. That’s a shame, because the PPACA is really good news for smaller employers, and people should know that. Here’s the actual provisions of the law that apply to those employers with fewer than 50 employees:
If you have up to 25 employees, pay average annual wages below $50,000, and provide health insurance, you may qualify for a small business tax credit of up to 35% (up to 25% for non-profits) to offset the cost of your insurance. This will bring down the cost of providing insurance.
• Under the health care law, employer-based plans that provide health insurance to retirees ages 55-64 can now get financial help through the Early Retiree Reinsurance Program. This program is designed to lower the cost of premiums for all employees and reduce employer health costs.
• Starting in 2014, the small business tax credit goes up to 50% (up to 35% for non-profits) for qualifying businesses. This will make the cost of providing insurance even lower.
• In 2014, small businesses with generally fewer than 100 employees can shop in an Affordable Insurance Exchange, which gives you power similar to what large businesses have to get better choices and lower prices. An Exchange is a new marketplace where individuals and small businesses can buy affordable health benefit plans.
• Exchanges will offer a choice of plans that meet certain benefits and cost standards. Starting in 2014, members of Congress will be getting their health care insurance through Exchanges, and you will be able to buy your insurance through Exchanges, too.
• Employers with fewer than 50 employees are exempt from new employer responsibility policies. They don’t have to pay an assessment if their employees get tax credits through an Exchange.
What this law actually does is provide an immediate and direct benefit to those small businesses with fewer than 25 employees. What this law actually does is allow those small businesses with fewer than 50 employees to compete with larger businesses in terms of offering benefits to employees. What this law actually does is give individuals some measure of health insurance security, so they can leave an employer and start their own business. With the PPACA, one could quit a job with a larger employer and START a small business, without putting the entire family at risk for actual bodily harm due to loss of employer-provided insurance and subsequent denial of medical care.
Here’s the (applicable) provisions on larger businesses:
Starting in 2014, large businesses (those with 50 or more full-time workers) that do not provide adequate health insurance will be required to pay an assessment if their employees receive premium tax credits to buy their own insurance. These assessments will offset part of the cost of these tax credits. The assessment for a large employer that does not offer coverage will be $2,000 per full-time employee beyond the company’s first 30 workers.
The Department of Health and Human Services estimates that fewer than 2% of large American employers will have to pay these assessments.
Republicans like Pawlenty and Romney are protecting larger businesses to the detriment of smaller businesses, because larger businesses do indeed have new responsibilities under the law. That’s why larger businesses are fighting it. Larger employers with low-wage uninsured or under-insured employees will no longer be able to pass their employee health care costs onto the public. They will have to pay us back if they refuse to provide decent health insurance to their employees, and their uninsured or underinsured employees then go to the federally-subidized exchanges to purchase health insurance.
Oh, and read this last sentence again:
The Department of Health and Human Services estimates that fewer than 2% of large American employers will have to pay these assessments
Not only are Mitt Romney and his surrogates lying about the law to elevate the interests of larger business over smaller business (those with fewer than 50 employees) they are protecting the bad actors. They are protecting that 2% of larger employers who refuse to provide any health insurance to their employees, and also refuse to reimburse the public when their employees inevitably end up receiving publicly-subsidized health care, now, and publicly-funded subsidies, later.
If you are a small business owner with fewer than 50 employees, Mitt Romney and the GOP are actively working against your best interests. What’s more, they are working against an individual’s ability to (responsibly) leave employment with a larger business and start their own small business, or go to work for a small business, while retaining comprehensive health insurance. That’s what federally subsidized universal coverage allows people to do. Your health care coverage will no longer be determined by and dependent on your employer. One has to wonder why that scares the GOP so much.
Remember: Mitt Romney is being marketed as a Business ExpertPost + Comments (77)
This post is in: Gay Rights are Human Rights, Rare Sincerity
And to Mr. Ready, as well. From the NTImes “Weddings/Celebrations” page:
IT was perhaps fitting that Representative Barney Frank met his future husband, Jim Ready, at a political fund-raiser in 2005.
“I told him I had a crush on him for 20 years,” said Mr. Ready, recalling that as a teenager he was inspired by Mr. Frank’s public declaration that he was gay.
And what did Mr. Frank make of that? “That I’m being rewarded for coming to this fund-raiser,” he said with a laugh.
Mr. Frank, 72, and Mr. Ready, 42, were married in Newton, Mass., part of Mr. Frank’s district, on Saturday in a low-key ceremony on the banks of the Charles River. Gov. Deval L. Patrick of Massachusetts officiated. The guests included Representative Nancy Pelosi, the House minority leader, as well as Senator John Kerry and Representatives Dennis J. Kucinich and Steny H. Hoyer.
Mr. Frank, Democrat of Massachusetts, became, in 1987, the first sitting member of Congress to volunteer that he was gay. He is now the first to be married to a partner of the same sex. Both bridegrooms said they recognized the historical significance of the ceremony, which lasted less than five minutes. Gov. Patrick told the guests that Mr. Frank had requested that the service “be short and to the point.” …
A genuinely happy story, for a Sunday afternoon.
by Zandar| 147 Comments
This post is in: Republican Venality, Assholes, Blatant Liars and the Lies They Tell, Bring On The Meteor, Clown Shoes, Flash Mob of Hate, I Reject Your Reality and Substitute My Own
I firmly believe that the number one qualification for being RNC Chairdouche is a spectacular lack of self-awareness bordering on non-sentience. Reince Priebus may be the most successful person in that regard to ever hold the position.
RNC Chair Reince Priebus framed the election in drastic terms Sunday morning, saying that another Obama term could put an ‘end to our way of life’ and that “liberty and freedom” are at stake in an appearance on “Fox News Sunday.”
“The fact is, it’s not a question of whether can Mitt Romney win,” Priebus said. “The statement is, Mitt Romney has to win for the sake of the very idea of America. Mitt Romney has to win for liberty and freedom. We have to put an end to this Barack Obama presidency before it puts an end to our way of life in America.”
Yeah, let the connotations of that sink in for a while complete with the lengths you think some of Priebus’s fellow Republicans would go to in order to “end” the Obama presidency, then grok this.
“This president has already shown that he’s not who he said he was. He claimed he was gonna bring everyone together, he was gonna be this uniter. He’s been the most divisive, nasty, negative campaigner that this country’s ever seen. He’s not running any positive ads at all.”
The temporal paradoxes that Priebus creates eating breakfast in the morning should have destroyed the Earth a thousand times over, except they keep getting sucked into the void that is his own self-obliviousness.
You’ve Blown A Flammastat Doohickey On This Here Reince PriebusPost + Comments (147)
This post is in: Garden Chats, Open Threads
I’ve attached pic of one of my raised beds. Tomatoes (Sun Gold, Costoluto, Paul Robeson, Black Cherry), peppers (anaheim, poblano) and eggplant (unnamed japanese variety) all in a 4×6 block. I got behind in planting this year, so they’re a couple weeks smaller than they should be, but we were refinishing the deck so I had a good excuse.
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Oh, and also some lilies that just bloomed, in case you want flowers.
Who could not want such gorgeous flowers?
I’ve been making an effort not to overwater my tomato planters this year — greatly assisted by an unusual number of overcast days, and temperatures “only” in the high 80s. So far the fruit set on the full-sized heirlooms seems a little better than usual (which may just be the early warm temps) but it’s too soon to tell whether it’ll help with cracking/crazing, much less improve the taste. On the other hand, none of my cherry varieties have ripened at all, and the suspense is killing me…
What’s going on in your gardens, assuming you and your plants have the strength to deal with the heat?