Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The fight for our country is always worth it. ~Kamala Harris

You are either for trump or for democracy. Pick one.

“Loving your country does not mean lying about its history.”

Petty moves from a petty man.

Republicans do not trust women.

You know it’s bad when the Project 2025 people have to create training videos on “How To Be Normal”.

I’m more christian than these people and i’m an atheist.

One way or another, he’s a liar.

Everybody saw this coming.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

You’re just a puppy masquerading as an old coot.

The words do not have to be perfect.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

The real work of an opposition party is to hold the people in power accountable.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

If rights aren’t universal, they are privilege, not rights.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

When they say they are pro-life, they do not mean yours.

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Open Thread

by | 231 Comments

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No idea what happened, but shit is live once again.

Update:  Mistermix here. Of course the site shits the bed when I am on trip, typical. Anyway, the issue was that we reached a database limit that caused the query behind “recent comments” box to take 2 minutes instead of a hundredth of a second to run, and that brought the whole thing to a crashing halt. The recent comment box is disabled until our provider can update the database config.  If the redesign is ever finished (not my department), for a number of technical reasons, this is less likely to happen.  Also, too, this is one of those things that a faster server can’t really fix, because the query runs almost instantly if things are configured for the (huge) database we have, and it takes 500 times longer to run if the configuration isn’t set right. So “buy a faster server” isn’t the answer.

Reader Interactions

231Comments

  3. 3.

    S. Holland

    Dear Lord, it was forever and then some….I’m having a horrible time trying to adjust….

  4. 4.

    PsiFighter37

    Email me at [email protected] if you’re interested in BJ meetup in LA area on May 10th or May 11th (in the evening). Me and Roger Moore are working things out on a place.

    I’m also drunk. I’m also really depressed about what’s going on with politics nowadays. I want good people proposing good policy. I think when I get drunk, I get idealistic, and I just can’t see any purely good policy getting done over the next couple years.

    Sigh.

    PF37 +6

  11. 11.

    jl

    Tunch overlooked that Australian blogger dude posting that slander-pic yesterday. Tunch is gracious and merciful. But Cole linking to it on BJ was pushing it.

  19. 19.

    max

    Victory over communism fascism!

    max
    [‘Das Blog was a great movie but they all died at the end got banned at the end.’]

  20. 20.

    Quicksand

    There was a great disturbance in the force … as if millions of firebots and o-baggers cried out in terror and suddenly had no one to troll.

  23. 23.

    hamletta

    I wondered why you weren’t showing up in my feed!

    Of couse, I pissed away a bunch of my workday ogling food porn. Wound up working till 7 pm, instead of 4 or so.

  24. 24.

    danimal

    You don’t know how addicted you are to a site…until you can’t get to it. I found myself checking compulsively. Balloon Juice, my drug of choice.

  26. 26.

    Irish Steel

    *gasp* *cough* *wheeze*

    Ugh, it was hell. HELL! Left to my own devices. To entertain myself. Jesus, I think at one point. I found myself stroking my chin. And agreeing with Chait about Michael Kelly. IT WAS LIKE BEING IN A FUCKING LSD FUNHOUSE.

    Okay. Okay. Calming down now.

  28. 28.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    I’m betting Tunch has something to do with it. It’s probably just a reminder to you as to who is really boss around here.

    Sleep lightly. ;)

  29. 29.

    Dee Loralei

    Sheesh, I’m a little bit traumatized. I actually had to be constructive today out of boredom!

  30. 30.

    Suffern ACE

    I’m trying to figure out if the US should respond to being called a boiled pumpkin by North Korea with a vegetable insult of its own or if we should escalate it to the whole grains group. North Korea is a blanched beet?

  31. 31.

    Quicksand

    @YellowJournalism:

    John directed angry and frustrated emails to her.

    Again.

    Also too, hey, where are the blockquote and other formatting buttons?

    EDIT: OK, they’re back. And edit works.

  34. 34.

    Anne Laurie

    @Suffern ACE:

    The CIA says no more posting on its operations in Pakistan.

    I actually thought it might be a DDOS attack from the Army of God terrorists. Balloon Juice may not have been on their radar, but I’m sure RH Reality Check is.

  37. 37.

    scav

    survived, but luckily had a few machine crashes so I could have diffuse digital grrrs and not obsess about this awol datadase. this one had other people to care for it (aka click obsessively and fruitlessly) while mine was all on its lonesome.

  40. 40.

    dance around in your bones

    @Yutsano: I kept checking Down For Everybody or Just Me? and getting a distressing result every time. “It’s not just you!”

    I even succumbed to using my lonely Twitter account for the second or third time. I think Cole is the only person I have ever tweeted. I know, I’m a weirdo.

  42. 42.

    cat48

    Geez, took abt 8 hrs. to get on this website. I figured it was a Chained CPI/SocSec/Medicare Cuts Angry Breakdown. I didn’t bother to get angry b/c I don’t think anything will pass the House & if it does, it will be a true Heaven Sent Miracle. Maybe a CR & a Debt Ceiling might pass, but that’s about all.

  43. 43.

    eemom

    @S. Holland:

    I’m worried about General Stuck…..anyone ?

    I agree. He hasn’t been around in a long time.

    John Cole — now that you have masterfully repaired the blog….do you have an e-mail you can use to contact the General and ask if he’s ok?

  44. 44.

    Anne Laurie

    @S. Holland:

    I’m worried about General Stuck…..anyone ?

    He has been known to take “internet breaks” when things got too ugly / depressing. I’m hoping he & Charlie are off enjoying themselves IRL (here’s his personal blog, ICYMI).

  47. 47.

    Elizabelle

    The internet giveth and taketh away today.

    Balloon Juice AWOL for hours.

    And yet — spanking new post from Al Giordano; his first since November 8.

    Nostalgia is a particularly Bostonian pastime, and now almost anyone who ever set foot in that city over the past half-decade has another trigger for melancholy. The Boston Phoenix is dead, boys and girls. Weep for your little town. It will never be as good as it was without that scrappy weekly newspaper that was undervalued in life and now is lionized from the tomb. Boston’s greatest – often its only – motor of culture has now gone the way of the brontosaur.

  51. 51.

    PsiFighter37

    Popped open a Founders All Day IPA session ale. Hell fuckin’ yeah, bitches.

    PF37 +7

  52. 52.

    Drunken hausfrau

    Also, this prompted me to follow John on twitter… It suggested that I might like Joan Walsh at salon as “similar”… Really? This is why I dont do social networking… Fixing me up with “similar” … Like an algorithm can do that.

  53. 53.

    Schlemizel

    COMPUTERS ARE HERE TO MAKE YOUR LIFE EASIER!

    keep repeating that shit till you believe it

  54. 54.

    jnfr

    Thanks for returning. I figured you’d throw up your hands and leave us forever.

    Not that you’d ever do that, right? RIGHT???

  56. 56.

    p.a.

    Good thing it crashed after work, or I may have had to do some for once.
    Get Hamsher on so we can blame Obama. (Previous was sarcasm, but his Social Sec actions are beginning to look disastrous. If there is any 3 dimensional chess going on I do not see it.)

  57. 57.

    Suffern ACE

    So Ralph Macchio is now as old as Pat Morita was when the Karate Kid was filmed. Most days, I think George Takei is funny. But today, I think he might be a little insensitive to my middle aged needs.

  61. 61.

    dexwood

    Ahh, I can finally relax and take the time to visit a favorite site or two. Did I miss anything?

  62. 62.

    dance around in your bones

    Somebody/something seems to have killed the ‘Recent Comments’ bit. Luckily I added comments for Balloon Juice to my live bookmarks eons ago when there was some other screw-up in a site ‘re-design’.

    Also, went to General Stuck’s site, last post was March 5 but for the life of me, I could not figure out how to comment there to tell him people are asking about him. Maybe I iz not learning.

  63. 63.

    Morbo

    Anyway, the issue was that we reached a database limit that caused the query behind “recent comments” box to take 2 minutes instead of a hundredth of a second to run, and that brought the whole thing to a crashing halt.

    So you’re on the same servers as the Bitcoin exchange?

  66. 66.

    Suffern ACE

    @p.a.: yep. It’s kind of difficult to figure out exactly what problem Mr. Pragmatist is trying to fix with that when all the press will talk about is how much money it will save. Yeah, Mr. Pragmatist is coming off like the entitlement miser.

    I’m going to predict that what will end up happening is that chained CPI if it passes will be like our 60 year emergency farm bill or our 30 year Doc Fix or the AMT fix, where an adjustment is going to come out of the general fund each year that will pass every year until suddenly it almost doesn’t.

    I can predict that because there’s no consequences for me being wrong.

  67. 67.

    The Fat Kate Middleton

    Oh, people. Just drink the drinks, then listen to Dropkick Murphys. You’ll be so pleased how little it all matters. But, yeah. I was a little worried there for a while. So I went to Netflix… has anyone besides me watched ‘I’m Not Scared’? (+6 white wine).

  73. 73.

    eemom

    For those of y’all old enough to remember a world without the innertoobz…..how DID we get through the workday, back then?

    I think I might have talked to people, but I’m not sure.

  74. 74.

    Petorado

    Cool. No longer looking for the right 12-step program to join for overcoming a Balloon Juice addiction. Welcome back … and FYDatabase.

  76. 76.

    dance around in your bones

    @eemom:

    I think I might have talked to people, but I’m not sure.

    Yeah, but only ’cause you HAD to. ¡No hay opción!
    Now we have an option. Surreptitious blogging.

  78. 78.

    danielx

    In yet another sign of the impending ghey apocalypse, Virginia Atty General Ken Cuccinelli is slapped down for insisting that the Supreme Court really didn’t mean it when they issued that decision against anti-sodomy statutes.

    Those BJers who are residents of Virginia and enjoy nastydirtypervertedmonkeysex (long may it rule) can rest assured that agents of the state will not be bringing down doors in efforts to keep you from whatever you fancy. No such reassurances about the local Baptists, who tend to be pretty damn serious once you get outside the northern VA area.

    Cuccinelli evidently spends as much time thinking about what other people do in bed (or on couches or swinging from chandeliers) as he does in, you know, doing his job. I can’t help but think the VA Atty Gen could spend his time in more profitable ways – for the voters anyway. Are, like, Virginia voters getting tired of the Don Quixote act yet?

  79. 79.

    Debbie(aussie)

    Not only was MrMix on a trip, I had insomnia and NO Balloon Juice. One of those rare times I could have been conversing in ‘real time’ and I couldn’t. Bummer:) Glad all is ok.

  83. 83.

    Roger Moore

    @eemom:

    how DID we get through the workday, back then?

    I think we stood around the water cooler gossiping and complaining. At least I remember some of that happening.

  85. 85.

    Hill Dweller

    @Suffern ACE: Obama’s budget is going nowhere. Social Security won’t be touched while he is in office.

    That said, chasing Village opinion is and always will be a fool’s errand for a Democrat. Republicans have become a party of nihilists, but the Village refuses to acknowledge it. They aren’t going to change now, even if Republicans, who have repeatedly asked for chained-CPI, are being hypocrites.

    Obama’s best hope now is to use the Republicans’ moving the goalposts to bolster a larger narrative of wingnut intransigence. But I still don’t know what that gets him in the end.

  86. 86.

    Svensker

    @amk:

    So, tunch is sated yet ?

    Oh God, Cole is reduced to frying his pets? Criminy.

    What’s that? No “u”? Oh. Never mind.

  87. 87.

    poco

    Don’t do that again!! This was horrible!! I spent the whole day hitting refresh and not getting my fix.

  89. 89.

    Corner Stone

    @Punchy:

    This site has all the reliability of a QuikTrip condom after 2 hours of drunk sex.

    You are absolutely doing it wrong. Fuck that 2 hours shit. Go see a fucking doctor.

  91. 91.

    Corner Stone

    @Hill Dweller:

    Obama’s best hope now is to use the Republicans’ moving the goalposts to bolster a larger narrative of wingnut intransigence. But I still don’t know what that gets him in the end.

    What it gets Obama? Nothing. Nothing at all.
    What it gets every D running for elected office? A big unlubed dildo right in their fucking ass.

  92. 92.

    Violet

    Awhile back we had a post on diet. Some folks mentioned the Wheat Belly book/diet and the Perfect Health Diet. Has anyone actually done either of those? I’ve been reading up on them. They seem challenging to stick with, as they’re lifestyle shifts, not a two week diet or whatever.

  93. 93.

    feebog

    The site was down? That’s what you get for working all day. Seriously, glad to see everything (almost) back to normal.

  94. 94.

    The Fat Kate Middleton

    @jeffreyw: Actually, J – much as I love the puppies and kitties I cannot have (because of allergies) – we actually need more discussion of politics. And the stories about SS are making me crazy. Talk me down.

  95. 95.

    PsiFighter37

    @Hill Dweller: It does not fucking matter.

    You have a Democratic president, putting legislation in a thick-ass book no one will ever fully read, proposing a reduction in Social Security benefits.

    The Village Fuckheads and the vast majority of the Idiot America population won’t know that the GOP would rather do away with it entirely when the asshole Koch brothers and the rest of their ilk run ads saying that Obama wants to cut your Social Security…and it’s true, in the mildest sense of the word.

    Goddamn, it’s depressing. There’s absolutely zero political upside to doing something this retarded. Dubya tried to privatize it entirely and lost most of his re-election goodwill doing so. Obama seems to be putting up less cuts, but very well could suffer the same electoral fate in 18 months time.

    Shitty, shitty policy, and even shittier political thinking behind the move. Put out a liberal firebagger’s wet dream and compromise from there.

  97. 97.

    Corner Stone

    I just don’t like the Astro’s traveling unis. Just really boring using the straight gray.

  98. 98.

    Hill Dweller

    @PsiFighter37:

    Shitty, shitty policy, and even shittier political thinking behind the move. Put out a liberal firebagger’s wet dream and compromise from there.

    I’ve been saying the same thing since his budget got leaked.

    The only thing they can do to mitigate the damage is highlight the Republicans asking for chained-CPI, but it still won’t stop their nihilism nor get the legislation Obama wants.

  99. 99.

    Corner Stone

    @PsiFighter37:

    Shitty, shitty policy, and even shittier political thinking behind the move. Put out a liberal firebagger’s wet dream and compromise from there.

    I agree it’s garbage but wait a second. Why are you bagging on some class of commenters who’ve been asking about this concern for some time?
    This is it right? The “firebaggers” didn’t make him put this in an aspirational budget, did they? Obama and the WH put those cuts in there. He’s the one who put every single D in a contested election behind the 8 ball. Who else did this?

  102. 102.

    CaseyL

    @Yutsano: What YellowJournalism said.

    It was a tweetfight.

    Here is John “That’s Why I Have Minions” Cole:

    Hey, my website is down but I am on the road, so @angryblacklady has agreed to deal with all your problems, so email her.

    …and Imani “Minion? Oh, It Is On!” Gandy’s response:

    dead to me. RT @Johngcole: Hey, my website is down but I am on the road, so @[me] has agreed to deal with all your problems, so email her.

    I don’t think there were very many emails, angry or otherwise. I think most of us just kept hitting Refresh, and sobbing softly.

  103. 103.

    Steeplejack

    @Anne Laurie:

    Would you send him an e-mail to ask at least for some sign of life? It has been a month since he was heard from, and he left no word that he was taking a hiatus. Very strange for a daily commenter.

  104. 104.

    srv

    OMG, OMG… You realize people died today?

    We need an Oracle RAC solution or a custom Postgre scale out on EC2 with some level of failover to support minimum comments.

    I cannot believe that the BJ IT Team could allow such a catastrophe to happen even though they are unpaid.

    Could we not outsource the IT to Bangalore for 50% of free?

    And how does emailing John help if the BJ domain is down? Dude did not even respond via twitter. We all need your pager numbers.

  105. 105.

    am

    You totally need a NOSQL key/value store. I’ve heard that magically cures all that ails you.
    /kidding

  108. 108.

    RobertDSC-eMac 1.25

    @PsiFighter37:
    aka he’s become President Fuckup.

    I’ve unsubscribed from OFA and all the Dem lists. Fuck that fool and his stupid budget.

  109. 109.

    dance around in your bones

    @srv: Yes, he did respond via Twitter:

    I just got home, yes the site is down, no I don’t know why, yes my hosting people are working on it.

    Then later he said :

    Hey, my website is down but I am on the road, so @angryblacklady has agreed to deal with all your problems, so email her.

    That’s yer bloghost! And here we were, all with the chills and the sweats.

  110. 110.

    Grumpy Code Monkey

    we reached a database limit that caused the query behind “recent comments” box to take 2 minutes instead of a hundredth of a second to run

    To err is human. To really fuck things up, you need a computer. And when things still aren’t sufficiently fucked-up enough, you need to run a database on that computer.

    BEST BUG EVAR: we were writing an output management application (basically would route print jobs throughout the enterprise, to email, to fax, whatever). We were originally using SQL Server as the DB backend, but for reasons not worth going into we converted to Jet, the engine behind MS Access.

    Every few seconds we’d query the Jobs table for any new entries. If any rows came back, we’d commit the transaction and process the new jobs. If no rows came back, we’d go back to sleep without committing the transaction.

    This turned out to be deadly.

    If we left it running overnight with no jobs coming in, the successive uncommitted transactions would build up in the transaction log, which in turn grew without limit until it took all available disk space and panicked the OS.

    That’s right, our software would crash the system by not doing anything. That’s art right there. For whatever reason SQL Server could handle the uncommitted transactions without bringing everything down, which turns out to not necessarily be a good thing. At least Jet let us know in no uncertain terms that our code had a problem.

  111. 111.

    Suffern ACE

    @Hill Dweller: can you articulate what Obama wants? Is he worried that people are getting higher payments than his economists think they deserve? There may be good reasons to do this. He may feel that extending the life of the trust fund is better than than raising the payroll tax or raising the retirement age. But his administration could make that clear-that the alternative is Suffern ACE retiring in 2040 to 75% of current benefits. Or Suffern ACE paying a 9% FICA tax, or the republican plan of lifetime benefits caps and vouchers with the Republicans. But is he talking about that? Or that because there is a drug plan now, seniors will actually have fewer monthly expenses. But that’s not the discussion were going to have when the first thing the administration talks about is $$ saved. That is going to sound like its coming out of my mom’s pocket, whether he means that or not.

  112. 112.

    srv

    @Emerald:

    Where is General Stuck?

    Sheesh, CS disappears for a couple weeks and no one cares.

    Thymezone rises from the dead every few months…

    I think AL banned Stuck.

  113. 113.

    The prophet Nostradumbass

    Something that can be amusing is to read Twitter between 5 and 7 PM Pacific time, and watch people froth with rage at something Chris Hayes or Rachel Maddow has said, or absolutely DEMAND that they cover some subject they’re obsessed with.

  116. 116.

    RobertDSC-eMac 1.25

    @Corner Stone:
    I had been a member and donator to OFA since the primaries in 08. Yesterday, I unsubscribed because of the fuckup of a budget he was going to put out. I then unsubbed from all the Dem email lists that I had landed on through ActBlue.

    I’m tired of the President’s capitulation to Republican terrorism. There was no reason whatsoever to include Social Security in the fuckup of a budget. None whatsoever.

  118. 118.

    handsmile

    Nice to see the usual nyms at the bar-n-grille tonight.

    Earlier today I was reading this NYRB essay on Isaiah Berlin and this passage seemed fitting to today’s Balloon Juice black-out and responses thereto:

    “In 1944, while working at the British Embassy in Washington, DC, Isaiah Berlin was called back to London on short notice, and it happened that the only plane available to take him was a loud, uncomfortable military bomber. Because the cabin wasn’t pressurized he had to wear an oxygen mask that kept him from speaking. And there were no lights, either, so he couldn’t read. He joked afterward, ‘one was therefore reduced to a most terrible thing – to having to think.'”

    Also too, speaking of MIA commenters, has anyone seen or know the whereabouts of Brachiator and/or Watergirl in recent weeks?

  119. 119.

    Redshift

    @srv:

    And how does emailing John help if the BJ domain is down? Dude did not even respond via twitter. We all need your pager numbers.

    If you don’t email him, you can’t complain that he didn’t respond to your email, duh.

  120. 120.

    dance around in your bones

    @Corner Stone: Really. You’ve got the totally insane party and the trying to make some kind o’ deal party/admin.

    Clearly, we should throw the some kind o’ deal party under the bus. ‘Cause it would be so much better to have the totally insane in charge.

  122. 122.

    longtime lurk

    I guess no front page poster on this blog has any thoughts about preznit’s plan to cut social security benefits? Funny, that.

  123. 123.

    Narrator

    @Redshift:

    The database issue wouldn’t have affected mail. These are two different things, and as long as the server was up, mail at the domain would still be accepted.

  125. 125.

    Redshift

    @danielx:

    Those BJers who are residents of Virginia and enjoy nastydirtypervertedmonkeysex (long may it rule) can rest assured that agents of the state will not be bringing down doors in efforts to keep you from whatever you fancy.

    When the controversy broke (actually, I think it was mostly during the previous one about getting rid of the anti-cohabitation law), a lot of my friends were publicly reveling in being lawbreakin’ rebels. :-)

    Cuccinelli evidently spends as much time thinking about what other people do in bed (or on couches or swinging from chandeliers) as he does in, you know, doing his job. I can’t help but think the VA Atty Gen could spend his time in more profitable ways – for the voters anyway. Are, like, Virginia voters getting tired of the Don Quixote act yet?

    Cuccinelli has basically spent his entire term on partisan crusades of one form or another — panty-sniffing, persecuting climate-change researchers, suing to block Obamacare, issuing advisory opinions that laws he doesn’t like are probably unconstitutional, etc. Most of which isn’t actually part of the defined duties of the AG.

    I think voters who pay attention at all are long since tired of having him make us a butt of jokes, except for the wingnuts who want to have a petty crusades rather than, you know governing. Unfortunately, we have off-year elections for governor, so it’s an open question whether we can get more sane people than wingnut crusaders to come out and vote in November.

  126. 126.

    Corner Stone

    @dance around in your bones: Well, let’s explore that for a second. Who’s abandoning who? What is there to defend?
    Did you ask for C-CPI? Did you ask for the D party to be set against the wall and shot in 2014?
    WTF are you talking about, if not that. Something else? We’re supposed to be terrified of some other outcome beyond SS C-CPI?

  129. 129.

    dance around in your bones

    @Corner Stone: Dude, I was responding to RobertDSC on his Mac thingy, talking about unsubscribing to OFA and all the Dem lists. You just got in the way.

  132. 132.

    longtime lurk

    Because I recall being told (among other things) back in October that the reason we couldn’t complain against Obama’s Muslim assassination program was because the Republicans wanted to… cut social security benefits.

    Whereas, in the very unlikely event that widespread complaints against Obama’s Muslim assassination program had actually resulted in Obama’s defeat, and then if President Romney had submitted a budget which proposed cuts to social security benefits (highly unlikely as well, since he never proposed doing this during the campaign), then, at least, there would be 8 front page posts every single day on this blog absolutely railing against such a terrible, evil, no-good granny-starving proposal.

    But now that Obama proposes it? Crickets.

  134. 134.

    Shortstop

    I’m smiling brightly at my newly CPAP-masked husband lying next to me in bed so he won’t twig that that thing is FREAKING ME OUT.

  135. 135.

    Hill Dweller

    @Suffern ACE: I think it’s simply posturing. Obama obviously wants to demonstrate to the world he is willing to compromise, but the Republicans won’t reciprocate. However, the Village hates him. Republicans have been crazy for years, but the Village has never admitted it. I can’t see that changing now.

    Also too, the only way chained-CPI passes is with Republican support, which takes their attacks away. I suspect that’s the reason Boehner and McConnell rejected it immediately.

    As an aside, it’s been reported Obama wants Dems to make a run at the House in ’14; and is willing to do as much as possible to make it happen. But they had to know this budget would make achieving that goal more difficult.

    I hope the WH has some sort of plan.

  136. 136.

    FlipYrWhig

    My best guess re: chained CPI is that it’s intended to be the equivalent of the insurance mandate, an irritant that makes it possible to institute other policies they like better from a wonkish perspective. You can see the “bend the cost curve” thinking all over again: slow the rate of growth of outlays, move some money to people at the bottom of the scale, and let the magic of compound interest produce a slow-moving actuarial balance rather than a big jolt to anyone. I don’t think it’s meant to be rejected or any of the other n-dimensional chess strategies; I think they like it but want to make sure the poorest people aren’t badly affected by it. It’s not politically wise at all, so they must like it as a policy (taken together with other tweaks and reforms). Or they have become convinced that the current COLA formula really is too generous, so it’s a good time to capitalize on Republican cut-mania to implement a new formula for inflation that works towards other balanced-budget goals.

  137. 137.

    longtime lurk

    @The prophet Nostradumbass: Which part am I imagining? The part where all the BJ front pagers hold their tongues while Obama does his part to take money out of the pockets of retired people? I’m pretty sure that part is actually true.

  139. 139.

    longtime lurk

    Because, sure, I like a good pet-rescue post as much as the next guy, but if you are a liberal (or even a Democrat) with access to a high traffic blog where you can post your opinions on the issues of the day, it seems like the fact that a Democratic president proposing to cut social security might be something you’d want to opine on.

  140. 140.

    RobertDSC-eMac 1.25

    Clearly, we should throw the some kind o’ deal party under the bus. ‘Cause it would be so much better to have the totally insane in charge.

    Considering the President is concerned more with deficit reduction than getting the economy back to health, he’s doing the GOP terrorists’ work for them. He could have articulated a fully-funded and staffed government with big aims and big objectives. Instead, he cuts Social Security in exchange for a couple of loopholes. No higher rates. Not even lowering the bar to 250K like he campaigned on. Fuck the deals he’s already made with the GOP terrorists. They don’t care one whit for what they’ve agreed to, so why should he?

    Bottom line, he could have said something good and backed it up with the full weight of the Democratic Party in prep for 2014. Instead, he failed the entire country by cutting Social Security.

    As I said, a fuckup.

  141. 141.

    Anne Laurie

    @srv:

    I think AL banned Stuck.

    Nope. I respect that particular commentor, even when (to put it politely) he doesn’t agree with me.

  142. 142.

    Shortstop

    It’s kind of like being in bed with Darth Vader. I might be able to do something with that if I just free my mind.

  144. 144.

    Anne Laurie

    @Shortstop: Well, at least the little whooshing noise the CPAP makes should be easier to sleep next to than the Cheynes-Stokes SNNNNRF/pausepausepause/gasp/SNNNNRFFF snoring noises, yes?

  146. 146.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @longtime lurk: Why don’t you go back and read the blog instead of pretending that the subject never came up? Oh, it is because you are a troll*.

    *No offense to people who have raised sincere concerns about the C-CPI provisions in the proposed budget.

  149. 149.

    eemom

    @Anne Laurie:

    Nope. I respect that particular commentor

    And of course, it is totally cool for you to randomly ban regular commentors you don’t respect — even after you launched one of the biggest shitshows ever seen on the blog at ABL for doing that.

  150. 150.

    longtime lurk

    @Omnes Omnibus: Call me names if that makes you feel better, but I’ve read every post on this blog and the only time it was mentioned was one post like 6 days ago, before the budget was even officially released. And that post — by mistermix — was milquetoast at best, and had an update where he basically took back his critical tone. Then the next day there were 6 posts (basically) defending the president from criticism about his CA AG leering. Since then, nothing about cuts to social security. How does that make any fking sense at all?

  151. 151.

    longtime lurk

    @RaflW: I’m not just talking about today, the budget was leaked last Friday. Since then, one single post on the topic.

  153. 153.

    RobertDSC-eMac 1.25

    @longtime lurk:
    Relax. The site was down most of the day during which the President offered his budget in writing. Now that it’s officially out, I imagine we’ll cover it in great detail. Calm down.

    I’m on record as already opposing it as I write above.

  157. 157.

    longtime lurk

    @RobertDSC-eMac 1.25: I’m perfectly calm, thanks. I just have a bone to pick. This has nothing to do with the site being down. There were a dozen posts today. And if you’re against the president’s budget and have said so, then maybe you should calm down because in that case I’m not criticizing you.

  158. 158.

    Ruckus

    I am a semi retired old geezer and on SS. So I have chained CPI to look forward to?
    Fuck that noise. I’ve worked 50 yrs, paying into SS so that I’d have something. And now the only party that isn’t completely bugfuck has just gone, completely bugfuck? I don’t get it at all. The worst is we are getting screwed by our “friends”. What the hell else are you going to do, vote for the original completely bugfuck party? Or stick with the new but only slightly less bugfuck party? And don’t give me that crap about it hasn’t passed yet and won’t. As soon as the democrats get done shooting themselves in the genitalia and lose the 2014 and 2016 elections we will get screwed far worse.

  159. 159.

    longtime lurk

    @Hill Dweller: I’m sure there’s been lots of commentary in open threads. Fine. If you’d read my comments you’d know I’m talking about front page posts.

  162. 162.

    longtime lurk

    @The prophet Nostradumbass: Ok. Atrios says the same thing every now and then. Like “I know everyone has their own pet issue, but it shouldn’t bother you that I only post about things I consider important.”

    I don’t disagree with that at all. OTOH, are you really going to try to tell me that the posters on this blog don’t consider social security benefits important? That is clearly wrong. And so then what could be the reason that they would fail to write posts about it? Hmm, let me think. What ever could it be?

    Again, if that was Romney’s budget it would be non-stop wailing and gnashing of teeth all over this blog, and rightly fking so.

  164. 164.

    Shortstop

    @Anne Laurie: Yes, that’s true, and if I ask him nicely, I bet he’ll tie me up with all these cords and tubes and things in the morning. See, there’s always a way.

  165. 165.

    longtime lurk

    @Ruckus: That is exactly right. I could be yelling about this on my own blog and no one at all would notice. THAT is the very reason I’m doing my small part to try to shame these folks into yelling about it themselves, here, where it will have an impact.

  167. 167.

    Another Halocene Human

    I admit it, I broke the blog. I tried to post a four paragraph rant on Imani’s anti-abortion death cult terrorists thread and next thing I know, the server’s hung and then went down like a palooka.

    Well, don’t all thank me at once for giving you all the chance to get some real work done today.

  168. 168.

    longtime lurk

    By the way, I used to have a blog during the Bush administration. I posted about 20 times a week and eventually had a smallish but respectable following. Once Obama was elected (yes, of course I voted for him) I started criticizing him from the left. Following vanished almost instantly, so I gradually just quit posting.

    Maybe that’s what Cole & friends are worried about?

    (Mostly tongue in cheek, but I think there’s probably some truth to it.)

  174. 174.

    FlipYrWhig

    @longtime lurk: Or, alternatively, maybe you have a track record of overstaying your welcome and becoming boring and whiny. Hypothetically, of course.

  176. 176.

    Shortstop

    @FlipYrWhig: I was just thinking of Leroy Weindorf, my seventh-grade history teacher. There was no objectively fascinating topic he couldn’t make boring as hell. Or all about himself. Same thing.

  177. 177.

    Mnemosyne

    Of course the site went down while I was home sick — just my luck. But I did get caught up on Slacktivist and some other sites I’ve been neglecting recently.

    Also, too, Washington Monthly had several good posts about Obama’s proposed budget. For one thing, the C-CPI would not only apply to Social Security benefits, which is why Republicans are shrieking about its evils. AFAICT, that’s the way people like Jared Bernstein were saying it needed to be done if it was going to be done: by increasing the minimum benefit and tying it to tax brackets, both of which are in the Obama budget.

  178. 178.

    longtime lurk

    @FlipYrWhig: Yeah, I think you’ve hit the nail on the head. And I fully realize that no one here wants to hear about this stuff. People like you think it’s boring and whiny, so what’s new? I’m quite familiar with the attitude around this place, just killing an hour or so in a futile attempt to change it. I’ll agree with you: it’s probably not worth the effort.

  180. 180.

    Another Halocene Human

    Oh FFS. Not sure why FYWP ate my comment about the Phoenix. Anyway, it will be missed.

  181. 181.

    Mnemosyne

    Today’s post from Jared Bernstein. Since people love to throw him in Obots’ faces, I thought I should point out that he’s not actually running around with his hair on fire about this specific C-CPI proposal, as opposed to the one some people seem to have manufactured in their heads.

  184. 184.

    Mnemosyne

    @Ruckus:

    I am a semi retired old geezer and on SS. So I have chained CPI to look forward to?

    As far as I can tell, the plan is for an increased initial benefit that grows more slowly with inflation. Right now, some people’s Social Security benefits start below the poverty line, while this plan would start the lowest earners above the poverty line.

    The C-CPI thing is tough because most of the reason people on Social Security need a benefit that grows faster than inflation is rapidly increasing healthcare costs, not normal living costs. The fear is that grandma is going to have to eat catfood because the price of her medications spirals out of control, not that food prices are going to go crazy. So, in theory, the reforms to Medicare and Obamacare should reduce or at least slow down those healthcare costs so the extra cost of living increase isn’t needed for healthcare.

  185. 185.

    longtime lurk

    @Mnemosyne: Wow, you sure have the blinders on. Chained CPI = less money in each SS check. Simple as that. If you can manage to spin that as a good thing, that’s a helluva feat.

  186. 186.

    Hill Dweller

    @longtime lurk: Krugman said Obama is posturing for the Very Serious People. Pierce ridicules an anonymous Obama advisor’s rationale for proposing C-CPI, but neither seems to think it goes anywhere.

    How do you think it gets through congress?

  187. 187.

    Amir Khalid

    I spent the outage period on YouTube, listening to Les Misérables in German, before going to bed.
    So now, I have an earworm:
    Dort, draußen im Dunkel
    Ein sündige Flüchtling
    Heillos und wild
    Heillos und wild
    Gott sei mein Zeuge
    Ich werde nicht ruhen
    Bis einlöse ich den Wilde …

  188. 188.

    Mnemosyne

    @longtime lurk:

    Some people? You mean like Paul Krugman and Charles Pierce?

    Yep. When has Krugman not initially freaked out at any proposal by Obama, only to have to back down later and grudgingly admit that maybe, just maybe Obama knew what he was doing? Take a look at some of Krugman’s columns from December if you’ve already forgotten.

    And I love Charlie Pierce, but economics is not really his strong suit.

  189. 189.

    Alison

    John, I’m disappointed. No Tunch pics to make it up to us?

    I’m also bummed because my MLS team got knocked out of the CCL tonight, and my EPL team is probably gonna get knocked out of Europa tomorrow. At least my baseball team kicked major ass today.

    Also too I am reading a great book, so that’s good.

  190. 190.

    Another Halocene Human

    @Mnemosyne: Don’t tell the AFL-CIO that, though–they’re off in screaming mimi land right now.

    AFL-CIO spends way too much energy protecting the same entrenched near-retirement or retired workers who sold out the younger generation with two-tier wages. Oh, they want to cry about a little tax on a supernice health plan when regular workers are LUCKY to get an 80/20 share plan with whopper deductibles and copayments and have it NOT be some sort of cronied up ripoff insurance deal. But guess what they’re not fighting: working joes getting TAXED on fucking MANDATORY WORK UNIFORMS, why, because certain kinds of workers are exempt, and the ones who aren’t are powerful enough to get wage concessions in return. WELL A FUCKING BUS DRIVER IS HARD PRESSED TO PAY FOR THEIR UNIFORM SHIRTS, OKAY. WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK. The COMPANY wants that fucking livery, always has, OWNS the fucking uniform (check the contract), but Jane Sixpack with three kids has to pay fringe benefits tax on that shit? What kind of fucked up shit is that? Where the hell was the AFL-CIO on that? Oh yeah, pushing for SOPA-PIPA because the well-heeled California entertainment sectors unions thought that was a good idea. (Earth to unions: technology is always one step ahead. Adapt.) Here’s a brainwave–why not pay normal American workers decent enough wages that they can afford to go the movies instead of buying bootlegs out the back of a hatchback for a dollar a piece?!

    Why did the CIO so abruptly get folded into the AFL? I wonder if the fix wasn’t in. The AFL has always been the dominant party and as far as I can see, it’s still up to its old tricks. Craft union mindset.

    You know what kills me? Finding rants in union constitutions about “dual unionism”. What fucking planet do these people live on. Fuck you asshat, I’ll join every union in my industry AND the fucking Wobblies if I thought I could accomplish anything that way. What the actual fuck.

    FUCK YOU TRUMKA!

    Okay, I’m out. Peace.

  191. 191.

    Mnemosyne

    @longtime lurk:

    Chained CPI = less money in each SS check. Simple as that.

    Funny, Jared Bernstein doesn’t think it’s that simple. But I guess you guys only listen to him when he’s bashing Obama.

  192. 192.

    longtime lurk

    @Hill Dweller: It won’t get through congress. No way. So we can be thankful for that. Republicans will oppose it and use it against Democrats in campaign ads.

    The point is that Obama is proposing it, and presumably will fight for it. He should be fighting for something else, anything else, that probably won’t make it through congress. Say, for instance, *increasing* social security benefits.

  193. 193.

    Ruckus

    @Mnemosyne:
    The problem is that it tracks not what people can/want to purchase but the lowest cost alternative. The example that Jared gives is that if red meat is higher cost than chicken they the chained CPI will switch to that. It doesn’t measure the cost of goods, it measures the cost of the lowest common denominator. It will in time force retires to purchase everything that costs the least. No matter the quality or that it is not what might just be better for that person. When I was in the military the budget for our food was $1.50/day. Bought in huge quantities 40 yrs ago and at the lowest acceptable quality(not my level, the FDA level) that got us some pretty crappy food. That is what the chained CPI brings about. Measure that across the entire range of things we need to just survive and you are left with a pretty shitty life. To save a few bucks per month from someone who has no other source of income? When it is not even necessary?

  194. 194.

    dance around in your bones

    Well, I am re-watching The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada and having a good time. Where the hell is our new thread?

  195. 195.

    longtime lurk

    @Mnemosyne: LOL. Krugman didn’t back down from his criticism of the policy, he just wrote another post saying that the WH told him it was just some kind of ploy to prove some kind of point, and so then he criticized it from *that* POV.

  196. 196.

    Amir Khalid

    @longtime lurk:
    How many times have you already seen it, Obama faking a concession to the Republicans on something unpalatable to his party base — always, packaged with some equivalent concession demanded from the other side — and when have the Republicans ever accepted it?

  197. 197.

    Mnemosyne

    @Ruckus:

    The example that Jared gives is that if red meat is higher cost than chicken they the chained CPI will switch to that. It doesn’t measure the cost of goods, it measures the cost of the lowest common denominator. It will in time force retires to purchase everything that costs the least.

    That’s a really, really simplistic version of what it is.

    When it is not even necessary?

    If we do absolutely nothing about Social Security, in 2035 benefits will automatically be cut by 25 percent:

    Currently, the Social Security Board of Trustees projects program cost to rise by 2035 so that taxes will be enough to pay for only 75 percent of scheduled benefits.

    So, yes, changes are necessary, or else you’re going to be getting a sudden 25 percent cut in your benefit when we get to 2035, which I think may be slightly more problematic for most people than a benefit that increases more slowly than it currently does.

  198. 198.

    Hill Dweller

    @longtime lurk: I’m sure Republicans, despite asking Obama for C-CPI, will hypocritically attack Dems. But if Dems continue to publicly oppose it, I doubt it hurts them. Granted, it certainly doesn’t help.

    Also too, Dems can always counter with the Ryan budget, which is far more devastating. Wingnuts actually voted for Ryan’s budget repeatedly.

  199. 199.

    longtime lurk

    @Amir Khalid: So… we should be happy that he’s constantly proposing things that are unpalatable to his base (i.e., us)? I’d rather the constantly proposed things that we thought were great, and then went to the mat to try and get them passed. Not that he hasn’t done that too, on occasion, but I agree that you are correct. Sorry: that doesn’t make me happy.

    Not only that, but on this particular issue, there’s a lot of evidence that he actually favors cutting social security going all the way back to ’08. Digby had a pretty convincing post (with cites) on that today or yesterday. So I’m not even convinced it is a ploy rather than the preferred policy.

  200. 200.

    Mnemosyne

    And, of course, now that I picked the C-CPI fight, I have to go to bed just when it’s getting started. This is what happens when the database decides to crap out on my sick day and only come back up right before I have to go to sleep.

  201. 201.

    Amir Khalid

    Another earworm:
    Nur für mich
    Im Stillen ist er bei mir
    Ganz allein
    Durchwachen wir die Nächte
    Dann spür ich
    Sein ferner Arm berührt mich
    Und wenn ich mich verlauf
    Schließ ich die Augen und er führt mich

  202. 202.

    longtime lurk

    @Mnemosyne: OMG! we desperately need to cut social security NOW so that we won’t maybe possibly have to deal with potential cuts 25 years from now. Geez. You’re hopeless.

  204. 204.

    Another Halocene Human

    @Violet: Wheat Belly is a terrible book that got immediate bad reviews from almost all quarters in the very primal/paleo/gluten-free blogosphere that spawned it. The bloggers out there who can read and understand a scientific paper were particularly scathing, but even absent scientific knowledge, it’s apparently just… bad.

    Perfect Health has a website. I suggest you check that out. They suggest a pretty conservative diet nutrition wise, but devoid of most grains except rice. It might be good if you have digestive problems, as about 1/3 of Americans adults do. Although if you have really serious problems I suggest you read up on FODMAPS and try elimination/challenge. At least until your guts heal. (NSAIDs are in wide use and damage the linings of your guts, making stuff like beans and garlic go from somewhat challenging to stomach bombs.)

    If you like tropical food, you will like PHD. If you like northern northern hemisphere cuisine which depends on wheat, rye, oats, you may find it unfamiliar and limiting. (There’s also the pseudograin buckwheat, which should be okay on PHD, but it’s become something of a specialty product.)

  205. 205.

    Suffern ACE

    @longtime lurk: No. That’s true. That’s actually part that I like. Right now, there is no lower limit on the amount of a social security benefit payout. So those retirees are currently in a big bind. Their monthly income from SS is too low to meet living expenses. What happens to those people is that they immediately get subject to state/federal welfare programs for the poor on retirement. Yeah, its great…they get food stamps and SSI, but the cost of SSI is that they will need to spend down their savings rather quickly to be eligible.

    At the very least, those people will be able to stay above the poverty line initially which is better if you have savings (even modest savings). What this does is actually federalize retirement for poor retirees at least initially. They will get more than they would have on a monthly basis than they would under the current plan. And at least because it is part of OASI, will not be subject to the whims of state legislatures or every Congress who want to chase after welfare fraud and steaks.

  206. 206.

    Ruckus

    @Mnemosyne:
    This does not sound like a positive change to me. If it is it needs a much better explanation than I’m hearing.
    I was told by someone who works at a bank that I would have to work till I die because that’s just the way it is. I asked this asshole if he planned to do that. I got deafening silence. That’s the attitude of a lot of our betters and I think that’s the attitude I see with this change. If that is true, I will kick myself every day for not moving to Canada in 1968.

  207. 207.

    dance around in your bones

    @Anne Laurie: Oh, thanks! My video gaming is pretty much limited to watching my grandkids play Minecraft and getting dizzy.

  208. 208.

    longtime lurk

    For fuck’s sake. I can’t believe I’m on a liberal blog at 1am trying to convince people that cutting social security is a *bad* thing. Time for bed.

  210. 210.

    Amir Khalid

    @Anne Laurie:
    I’m not keen on sci-fi TV either. S’okay. I’ll just stay here and post Les Miz lyrics in German.

    Dieser Schmerz kennt keinen Namen
    Niemand bringt sie wieder her
    Dunkles Schweigen an den Tischen
    Meine Freunde sind nicht mehr

    Hier erhob sich ihre Flamme
    Hier ergriff sie Mann für Mann
    Hier besangen sie die Zukunft
    Doch die Zukunft brach nicht an…

  212. 212.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @longtime lurk: Hey, email me when an actual cut to SS passes Congress and shows up on the President’s desk for a signature. It was a posturing move to appeal to centrists. I am rather agnostic about the wisdom of the C-CPI move, but I don’t think anyone with any power on the D side in Washington is concerned that it was ever going to be enacted.

  213. 213.

    Suffern ACE

    @Ruckus: You see, I don’t think that’s the case. This doesn’t raise the retirement age like the Republican plan or the cat food commission plan. Under the current system it is better to work as long as you can from a monthly payment perspective. But I don’t think that it touches 62, 65/67 as retirement age.

    I think a lot of people are going to be concerned that this is the Ryan plan in disguise but it very clearly is not. I’m not saying that I’m happy with it, but this isn’t the same thing as “I can work until I’m 90, why can’t you? 80 is the new 40” plan that the Villagers like.

  214. 214.

    Another Halocene Human

    @Ruckus: I’m confused about that because I thought the CPI the government was using already included “hedonic substitution”. And I thought they excluded gas and tolls food. Y’know, stuff you need to buy.

  215. 215.

    Another Halocene Human

    @Suffern ACE: Hm, in a really cold and calculating way it will hit those of higher socioeconomic status worse than the working class who generally don’t live long enough to enjoy much of their retirement. So there’s that.

    I think the floor should be higher if you have enough ‘work credits’ because who the hell decided that a disabled former hotel maid shouldn’t be able to spend her golden years with a modicum of dignity?

    They should let people taking SS earn more annually as well, then they will be paying in payroll taxes instead of looking for under the table employment. The sort of people who do this are not plutocrats. Usually their bodies won’t let them do full time anymore anyway. Working PT they will stay healthier longer and cost the healthcare system less. And they will be less dependent on handouts from strapped local governments. Something to think about.

  216. 216.

    Suffern ACE

    @Another Halocene Human: that’s one of the differences between SSI and OASDI now. For SSI, you are only allowed to earn $2000 a year and if the government finds out you’ve earned more, they need to start taking it back. Now that’s not a lot and at the SSI level, $100 or $150 a month helps. But on OASDI (regular social security) you don’t have that cap. So if you come into a windfall, they aren’t reducing your payment down the road.

  217. 217.

    Another Halocene Human

    @Suffern ACE: But don’t they start taxing it heavily? Like I know people that only work so many months in the year. They said they had to be under a certain cap.

    The disability benefits and other welfare benefits that have extraordinary low asset caps and income caps are something else altogether. No fucking connection to reality. One dumbshit friend of mine whose mood disorder made him unemployed and unemployable for a while lost like 100lbs while he refused to apply for food stamps because the DVD and game “collection” he had blown all his money on back in the days before his parents cut him off was “worth” more than $2K according to some dumbshit website he had it logged on.* Like you can firesale your DVDs and pawnshop and get anything other than pennies on the dollar.

    *-(Y’know, to humblebrag to other parental basement libertarians like himself. I think he’s gone more liberal since the Great Parental Cutoff.)

  218. 218.

    Ruckus

    @Suffern ACE:
    Working for another 5 years at what I know how to do? Or at minimum wage at some crap job?
    Many of us worked jobs that have torn up our bodies and working another 5-10 years is probably just not in the cards for me and many others with similar experiences. I haven’t even made it to 65 yet and 20 years ago wasn’t even sure I’d ever get this far let alone there. And I don’t know that life will be any better for the next generation or the one after that and so on. Those people who want to work after 65? More power to them. But I’ve had more years working 3000 to 3500 hrs per year than not and I just don’t have it in me to look at the rest of my life with no retirement, no relaxing.

    @Another Halocene Human: @Another Halocene Human:
    Not sure that the current one does except that the chained CPI does, if the explanations that I’m hearing are correct. And what else would one use to measure the cost of inflation if not the regular things people have to purchase?

  219. 219.

    Another Halocene Human

    Speaking of food stamps, I’m waiting for a friend’s winger husband to get enough distance from his little sojourn on food stamps (they were living on student loans… but get this… they got iPhones… fuckers… a conservative friend was way more pissed than me, I just think they’re full of shit) to start saying stupid crap about people on food stamps. So I can punch him in the cock (with votes).

  220. 220.

    Another Halocene Human

    @Ruckus: Maybe it was the official inflation rate, then? The “fiscal conservative” bear blogs I used to frequent before the crash ranted about hedonic adjustments all day long.

    Working people need pensions. Wall Street is busy taking them away. I don’t know why, they’re not hurting anybody. I guess blue collar workers aren’t suffering enough for the MOTU.

    Wouldn’t pensioning people off BEFORE their bodies break be better for the entire society than this nonsense disability retirement dance?!

    But, noooooo, we had to steal the pension money, it was just sitting there mocking us.

  221. 221.

    Suffern ACE

    @Ruckus: I’m not recommending working. The folks who are mandating that are the ones who want to raise the retirement age to 72. My grandfather did work a little in a store after retirement until he was 80, but mainly to get away from my grandmother for a few hours a week. He probably lived longer that way.

  222. 222.

    Ruckus

    @Omnes Omnibus:
    I’m not concerned either about it passing either except for 2 things.
    1. If it even only makes Obama look bad some of the party of death may want it to pass in some form. And then the prez has to veto it. That doesn’t look good for his proposal. Doesn’t sound like very good politics.
    2. Why does he seem to think this is the way to go? Nothing I’ve seen seems to point this as a positive step. At best it saves a few bucks at the cost of retirees, at worst it saves a few bucks at the cost of retirees and has real possibilities of screwing up the next couple of elections.
    I know that so far Obama has pretty much played the party of death but there may only be so many of these bait and switch ploys left for him. I’m not sure this is one of them.

  224. 224.

    Ruckus

    @Suffern ACE:
    It’s not that some one is trying to mandate raising the retirement age(which many are trying to do) it’s that SS doesn’t pay enough to have a modicum of normal life. For some(like me) I make enough to get by. But I have the VA so I won’t have to pay $102 per month for Medicare. That is a huge difference. For someone making less than me on SS(and I am just above the average), that may be a deal breaker.

  226. 226.

    Debbie(aussie)

    I would like to ask why it isn’t means tester. Some people did so ell I. Life have no NEED, I realise that supporting one fellow citizens is out of favour but shit really?

  227. 227.

    Debbie(aussie)

    I would like to ask why it isn’t means tester. Some people did so ell I. Life have no NEED, I realise that supporting one fellow citizens is out of favour but shit really?

  229. 229.

    Villago Delenda Est

    Buying a faster server may not be the answer, but smarter code monkeys sounds like a plausible one.

  230. 230.

    Violet

    @Another Halocene Human: Thanks for the response. Sorry I’m so late replying–I went to bed. The Wheat Belly book/blog seems alarmist to me, but I seem to have a problem with wheat–a sensitivity–so I found it interesting. The PHD seems complicated and my biggest problem with all of them is staying on any kind of very limited diet. How does one do it?

Comments are closed.