Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The real work of an opposition party is to oppose.

Just because you believe it, that does not make it true.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

Roe is not about choice. It is about freedom.

We will not go quietly into the night; we will not vanish without a fight.

When I was faster i was always behind.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

People really shouldn’t expect the government to help after they watched the GOP drown it in a bathtub.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

Every decision we make has lots of baggage with it, known or unknown.

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

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

… gradually, and then suddenly.

Jack Smith: “Why did you start campaigning in the middle of my investigation?!”

Republican also-rans: four mules fighting over a turnip.

’Where will you hide, Roberts, the laws all being flat?’

The low info voters probably won’t even notice or remember by their next lap around the goldfish bowl.

Human rights are not a matter of opinion!

President Musk and Trump are both poorly raised, coddled 8 year old boys.

I am pretty sure these ‘journalists’ were not always such a bootlicking sycophants.

Disappointing to see gov. newsom with his finger to the wind.

Republicans cannot even be trusted with their own money.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Open Thread: So Much for That Clever Plan, Sen. Cruz…

Open Thread: So Much for That Clever Plan, Sen. Cruz…

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If the Teahadists have lost Karen Tumulty… well, let’s just acknowledge a true Media Villager always knows when to cut ties with the no-longer-fashionable.

Apart from watching the tides, what’s on the agenda for the evening?

Reader Interactions

118Comments

  1. 1.

    Suffern ACE

    Did a little experiment with diet coke and a laptop. I thought once the caffeine hit the hard drive and processor, it would run at Cray speeds. Sadly, I now need to create a Frankencomputer from the spare parts in the tech department. What a wonderful way to lose a day at work.

  2. 2.

    JPL

    Karen Tumulty actually wrote about health care costs because she has a disabled brother so she might be the best example. just sayin

  4. 4.

    Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader

    Been working so hard I have no idea what’s going on out there in the real world. Is the government still shut down? Is Obama still refusing to negotiate? Is Boehner still drunk?

  6. 6.

    ? Martin

    Well, the uptick is almost certainly due to people signing up and word spreading that prices are good. I wonder how much variability is in that data in the crosstabs between states where the signups are working well and those where it’s not.

    But yeah, GOP really stepped on their own dick on this one.

  13. 13.

    Belafon

    Cycling through the Nietzsche Family Circus, and this one came up:

    Madness is rare in individuals – but in groups, parties, nations, and ages it is the rule.

  15. 15.

    geg6

    Fucking Chuck Todd is crapping his pants over this. He had no choice, no way to spin the numbers to both sides do it, let alone GOP WINNING!

  20. 20.

    The Dangerman

    At this point, I’d offer a year delay of the Individual Mandate penalty (meaning, people that need the ACA to get insured) for raising the tax rates on the 1% (capital gains, etc). Of course, the Republicans wouldn’t do it, but I’d offer it just to show “flexibility and compromise”.

    ETA: Went and saw “Gravity” today; really, a must see in 3D and in IMAX if possible. Very well done (can’t say more without possible spoilers)…

  21. 21.

    Zifnab25

    If a Democrat wanted to really rat-fuck like a pro, he’d put together an ad that linked the site issues on healthcare.gov with the government shutdown.

  24. 24.

    Villago Delenda Est

    Meanwhile, Newsmax reports from over in the Spock-with-a-beard Universe:

    Ted Cruz Poll: GOP Gaining in Obamacare Fight

  25. 25.

    Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader

    @geg6: When you need a creepy child-fucking weirdo like Chuck Todd fluffing for ya, yer already in trouble.

  27. 27.

    Belafon

    @The Dangerman: No concessions. Nothing until they give up the debt limit and pass a clean CR.

    Anything that sounds like a concession means you’re just haggling over the price.

  28. 28.

    Kay

    This is the best part of the health care roll-out:

    Steve Beshear ‏@GovSteveBeshear 8h
    Have you signed up for #healthcare through #kynect? Or are you thinking about signing up? Tell us your story using the hashtag #mykynect

    He won’t shut up about it. If you’re going to take a huge risk in a red state, this is the way to do it. Joyfully!

  29. 29.

    Eric U.

    @Suffern ACE: my boss brought me a computer that had been spilled on. When I took it apart, it became clear that there were steel parts that had been red hot. I assume there was a fire.

  30. 30.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @raven:

    I killed my macbook pro a couple of months ago with a cup of Morning joe.

    Fixed, given your notorious 6:00 a.m. posts.

  33. 33.

    The Dangerman

    @Belafon:

    No concessions. Nothing until they give up the debt limit and pass a clean CR.

    I’m not sure a concession that they’d ever agree to is really a concession; my point is Right wants to pull taxes off the table and then complain when the Left pulls the ACA off the table. Let them have a taste of their own medicine.

  35. 35.

    MikeJ

    @Belafon:

    No concessions. Nothing until they give up the debt limit and pass a clean CR.

    And I expect Ted Cruz to pay for the gambling license himself.

  37. 37.

    Chris

    @Knight of Nothing:

    And he would have gotten away with it too – if it hadn’t been for those meddling kids!

    I would have paid so much more attention to those children’s cartoons if I’d known that the villains in them would provide insight into the way so many of our Rich And Powerful actually act in real life.

  38. 38.

    JPL

    @Kay: Marketwatch had a story a few days ago about the two Obamacare plans. One with governors adopting it and one without. I’ll try to find to link..

  40. 40.

    RobertDSC-Power Mac G5 Dual

    @Kay:
    You go, Dinosaur Steve!

    I’ve had my fill of these Rethug terrorists. I’m tired of their shit. I particularly am tired of Teh Orangeman. It’s grotesquely obvious that he’s in way over his head and doesn’t know what to do. No grace. No skill. Just garbage. Hang it up, Boehner. Just walk away.

  41. 41.

    KG

    don’t know why, but I followed a link from Sullivan to McArdle. McArdle basically says, “we’re losing and this isn’t the way to win, we need to get out of this as best we can…” In short, it’s a sane analysis of the situation, which, all things considered, is pretty remarkable in and of itself. But it’s the comments that I can’t get enough of. There’s plenty of derp, but there’s also quite a bit of counter-derp.

    More and more, I’m coming to believe we live in at least two different countries… To borrow the “kitchen table” metaphor, maybe it’s about time we go see that nice lawyer from church to talk about how we go on with our own lives?

  43. 43.

    Kay

    @JPL:

    I don’t know anything about him, but if I were him I would copy Rand Paul on each of these:

    Steve Beshear ‏@GovSteveBeshear 8 Oct
    As of 10/8/13 @ 3pm ET: 25,324 #kynect applications have been started,17,314 applications have been completed @kynectky #ACA #healthierky

    See if he can get Paul to respond with something churlish and sneering, which won’t be hard :)

  46. 46.

    fleeting expletive

    I called Tom Cole’s office today and got an intern, unpaid as it turns out. She flat out argued with me about the ACA but eventually agreed lots of good things for people are in the law. But–“my uncle’s insurance company sent him a letter raising his rates, he’s a small businessman”, etc. I asked if her uncle had looked at the exchange website, she said she didn’t know, I told her about subsidies. But, but, but, companies are cutting peoples’ hours! Yes, of course they are, they’re taking advantage but the law has a fix for that.

    It went on for maybe 20 minutes like that. I don’t like to argue with people, like, ever, but cheese louise, how much of a true believer do you have to be to work as an unpaid intern in Tom Cole’s office?

  47. 47.

    JGabriel

    @Zifnab25: If a Democrat wanted to really rat-fuck like a pro, he’d put together an ad that linked the site issues on healthcare.gov with the government shutdown.

    That wouldn’t be a rat-fuck … unless the Democrat pretended to be a Teabagger and bragged about causing problems for healthcare.gov by shutting down the government.

    In order for something to meet the qualifications for a rat-fuck, it’s gotta look like it’s coming from the opposing party or an independent media report. A true rat-fuck doesn’t lead back to the perpetrator, at least not on purpose.

    .

  48. 48.

    Shakezula

    They’ve also lost Jan Brewer who has realized that Obamacare = Jobs. If I were going to make a prediction, I would predict that this time next year the TEAOP will be calling it the Affordable Care Act and shrieking when the press calls it Obamacare.

    @raven: There’s a former Apple drone in my office. The super secrit fix for dunked Apples you aren’t supposed to know about? Stick it under the fridge for 24 hours.

  49. 49.

    Amir Khalid

    I read Karen Tumulty’s Swampland posts religiously when I was lurking at that blog. That place kind of lost its bloom for me when she leftfor the Post, Joe Kline became its main draw, and the comment threads began to dwindle. (That was when I followed some of the more interesting Swampland commenters here.) She was favourable towards healthcare reform without being a Democratic partisan, which made her more trustworthy to me.

    I remember her writing about her brother. Particularly her outrage that a medical insurer had sold him an essentially worthless policy when he had issues additional to his mental disability.

  50. 50.

    Belafon

    @KG: Yeah, once you figure out how we can move people like me out of red areas north. The problem is how to divide up the property.

  51. 51.

    raven

    @Shakezula: Way too late but I read all kinds of interesting stuff. thx

    “Get a big plastic bag. Fill it with dry white rice. (It absorbs moisture.) Put your Mac in the bag. Seal the bag. Put the bag (with your Mac inside) into your refrigerator – the fridge, NOT the freezer. Wait 48 hours. Take the bag out of the fridge, take the Mac out of the bag. Let it stand for at least 4 hours. Then try turning it on. If you’re lucky, it will work and no permanent harm was done.”

  55. 55.

    David Koch

    NBC/WSJ: Obama –with a 47% favorable, 41% unfavorable rating – is the most popular political figure or institution in the poll

  58. 58.

    Mnemosyne

    It’s still quite chilly here in Southern California (with gray clouds still threatening more rain), so it may be shepherd’s pie for dinner (though with ground turkey instead of ground beef since that’s what I have on hand).

  65. 65.

    geg6

    @David Koch:

    I know. Bully pulpit, motherfuckers! Angry black man! And people like it. Especially when the big GOP solution seems to be to drop back and punt us the Ryan Plan while repeatedly stepping on their own dicks. That’s not gonna bring those numbers up, I don’t think.

  67. 67.

    WereBear

    Speaking of trashed laptops, this was a selling point when I got the Chromebook; it’s cheap and lives in The Cloud. If something happens to it, it’s not nearly as big a deal.

    Two years on: I had a trackpad replaced under warranty, and after constant use, the battery life has gone from 5 hours to 3, but it’s also replaceable for $50. So far, an excellent investment.

  68. 68.

    Anya

    People needing health care, jobs and a working economy is so passe cuz AIN’T NOBODY GOT TIME FOR THAT.

  69. 69.

    ArchTeryx

    @The Dangerman: One of the most insane movies I’ve ever seen committed to film. It’s an up-close, personal, and utterly horrifying look at Kessler Syndrome in action.

  70. 70.

    Central Planning

    @Knight of Nothing:

    And he would have gotten away with it too – if it hadn’t been for those meddling kids!

    No lie – there is a conversion van that drives around Pittsford (suburb of Rochester) that looks just like this Mystery Machine. Maybe it is the Mystery Machine. Hmmm…

  71. 71.

    SFAW

    @dmsilev:

    Yes, but Dick Morris still says that Obamacare is doomed. Ergo, we’re fine.

    It ain’t over ’til the Fat Head Bill Kristol sings says it’s doomed.

  75. 75.

    srv

    God Bless Ted Cruz and Texas.

    Someone needs to tell Ewick that milking the old white man is not going to get him to retirement. He needs to diversify.

  77. 77.

    dogwood

    These poll numbers won’t last, because people will move on if the Republicans cave, and will start blaming the Dems as well if it goes on much longer. The long term effect of these numbers lies in the fact Dems can remind the voters of how pissed off they were when midterms roll around. Repealing Obamacare was the central argument of 2012, and it didn’t work. And that’s before anyone actually saw the product. A year from now it’s going to be central again only this time republicans are going to promise to take away something rather than stop something from happening. I doubt the GOP will lose the House, but they’ll lose some seats over this and they have certainly given the Democrats some hope that they can retain the Senate in a year when they are almost completely on defense.

  82. 82.

    Anya

    @Kay: I am just wondering where are the blue state governors in this fight? Why aren’t they out there selling the hell out of CA?

    And speaking of Blue States, WTF is wrong with the New Jersey voters? Why are they voting for that righwing asshole Christie?

  83. 83.

    JPL

    @WereBear: Maybe.. Totally different comparison but I was talking to a friend, about Robin Wright and not thinking about her being a serious actress until House of Cards. She said she learned.
    Maybe Luke is learning.

  84. 84.

    johio

    I just watched League of Denial. Think I may have watched my last football game. And it’s pretty clear that the NFL hired the same script writers as big oil/coal has used to deny global warming. Sons of bitches and their enablers at ESPN. I think we should hit them in the head repeatedly since they’re so sure that’s harmless. God I hate sociopaths with power.

  85. 85.

    Ben Cisco

    Sound did something weird during the Louisville – Rutgers game. All commentator sound dropped out.

    So far it appears to be an improvement.

  86. 86.

    Redshift

    I also have to marvel at the brilliance of having a shutdown and debt-ceiling fight that would suck up all the news oxygen during the period when Obamacare would otherwise be getting terrible headlines. There seems to be no limit to their ability to step on their own dicks.

  88. 88.

    Mandalay

    @Ann Laurie:

    If the Teahadists have lost Karen Tumulty…

    What has Karen Tumulty written to earn that sneer? If anything, go after her for being the milquetoast of journalism, but I think you need to substantiate that accusation.

    And for all her mainstream blandness, at least Tumulty still has the balls to call Matt Taibbi on his nasty shit.

  89. 89.

    Violet

    I realize I’m lucky to have health insurance, but come January 1st a lot more people are going to be able to experience the joys of dealing with the health insurance company.

    I have a doctor who is out of network. I sent in the receipts. Same receipts I’ve sent for several years, including once this year already. I just checked online to see if they got them. They got them alright. The first half of them are coded saying some code is incorrect. Same exact code they approved in April. Suddenly the code isn’t okay?

    The second half are coded saying my coverage was terminated when the expense was incurred. Uh…no. Not unless something has happened that I’m not aware of. Other doctors are accepting my insurance.

    So I get to make the fun call to the monolithic insurance company and see what they have to say. Nothing is simple. They make you work for that coverage. Hours out of your day to get reimbursed.

  90. 90.

    Redshirt

    @JPL:

    I’m streaming msnbc and luke russert is sounding informed.

    I’m reading these words, but they make no sense.

    Maybe we’ve crossed the Wingularity, and are now on the other side!

  91. 91.

    fuckwit

    @dogwood: Getting people to vote because of being pissed off and vindictive is not The Obama Way. Getting people to vote because they are happy and inspired with hope and change for a better future is The Obama Way. I’m speaking as someone who has campaigned for OFA in three elections now and looking forward to one or two more at least.

    Let the Teabaggers trade on fear and anger and hate. That’s not how Obama rolls. I don’t expect the message in 2014 to be punishing the R’s. I expect it to be inspiring people with how good America can be when we all work together as one country, optimism optimism future hope. Which is all true; and a functioning Obamacare that makes so many people’s lives happier and provides so much relief, for almost a year before the election, will move that along quite nicely.

    This is partly why the Teabaggers and the Koch elite are so hell-bent on destroying the country. The the only way they can jam the Obama message is to completely wreck the country so that there is misery and pain and suffering everywhere– to murder hope and cut its heart out and place it on a stake for all to see.

    This is what we’re up against. This is what’s motivating a lot of the teabagger nihilism. Because, in a country that’s doing well, where government functions, where everyone is happy and has hope for their future, looks a lot like a Democratic country.

  93. 93.

    Regnad Kcin

    @KG: this — we are paying the price for keeping them in the first place (well, the second place, i suppose, but 1865 all the same).

    there is no reason the northeast, the cleveland-chicago-minn megaplex, and the west coast couldn’t make very nice germany+ sized countries.

    at the same time, the mountain west would be a perfectly decent resource-extraction banana republic, and southern redneckistan would be fine as an agricultural backwater.

    florida, no idea

  94. 94.

    Suffern ACE

    @Anya: ugh. Ok. The same reason blue Massachusetts went for Scott Brown, kind of. The concentration of swing democrats is in the liberal northeast.

    At the same time, the Dems had a series of unpopular governors, Christie thus far has not been tied to a scandal, he appears to be spending Sandy Money to help repair the state and not enrich his friends or drive away the poor (looking at you, Louisiana) and a lot of wealthy Dem men like male deciders. Buono was too close to investment banker former unpopular governor Corzine.

    You know those people who claim they don’t want partisanship? See New Jersey voters.

  95. 95.

    beltane

    @Violet: My insurance is through BC/BS of Mass. They used to hassle me for every claim submitted until Romneycare went into effect. I have not had a single problem with them since. I wonder if this will be replicated nationwide.

  97. 97.

    Jeremy

    The republicans really need to get out of the echo chamber they’ve created. They misread the election badly, then they decide to shut down the government over the health care law with no exit strategy. They thought that President Obama and the democrats would cave because of a popular anti- Obamacare uprising.

  100. 100.

    Violet

    @beltane: I hope things improve. They changed a bunch of codes this year, probably because of the health care law. That was the problem the first time I sent in these receipts. Fixed that. Used the same codes for this, now they’re telling me it’s wrong AND my insurance is terminated. I don’t have any idea what is going on.

  102. 102.

    dogwood

    @fuckwit:
    Being positive and reminding people that your opponents shut the government down and wanted to default over Obamacare are not mutually exclusive.

  103. 103.

    gene108

    @Anya:

    Why are they voting for that righwing asshole Christie?

    I’ve been in living in NJ for the past 17 years. My theory is that since I’ve been here the bar for good governorship is pretty damn low.

    I’ve been through Christie Todd Whitman, who left her second term early to head the EPA under Bush, Jr. I can’t really think of anything she did that was remarkable, though I think she cut some taxes that lead to later budget problems.

    Interim governor.

    McGreevey who resigned in part way through his first term in scandal for having a homosexual affair.

    Interim governor

    Corzine, who has no charisma but did had some good ideas in terms of improving NJ’s economy, like credits that turned NJ ino the second leading producer of solar cells behind CA. Unfortunately he was up for re-election in 2009, with the worst economy imaginable. I know people, who voted for Christie just because things were bad so fuck it lets make a change. Plus his lack of charisma made his flaws and missteps really stand out.

    Things have gotten better, since 2009. Christie has crapped all over poor people, but for the middle and upper middle class resident things are not that dramatically screwed up because of his tenure as governor mostly because a rising economic tide lifts all boats. The Democratic legislature has curbed his ability to go all Tom Corbett on NJ, so we do not have voter ID laws, for example and despite Christie’s opposition to abortion (and probably desire to stick a transvaginal probe in a woman’s vagina for seeking an abortion) he really has not been able to do much on such issues, so people figure he’s not as right-wing as he actually is.

    Plus people like his “straight talk”.

    Also, too the state Democrats in NJ need a kick in the nuts. The Dem bosses are putting kickbacks from Christie, like sweetheart land deals, ahead of having a Democrat as governor. Christie’s greased quite a few Democratic palms and has gotten their support for his re-election bid.

  104. 104.

    Mike in NC

    Karen Tumulty, another Village Idiot like Mark Halperin, who toiled in the worthless sweatshop known as Time magazine, hoping to land a show on Fox News…

  106. 106.

    Kay

    @Anya:

    I am just wondering where are the blue state governors in this fight? Why aren’t they out there selling the hell out of CA?

    I don’t know what they’re doing. The little I’ve seen has been from CA, WA, KY and CT.

    It’s bad in Ohio. If it works here it will be because people sought it out. The Lt Governor is on another “lie about the health care law” tour. She thinks lying about Obamacare is her ticket to bigger things. She’s a dope, though. She’s ambitious and relatively young and going all in w/the Tea Party is short-sighted.

    I don’t think the Tea Party is a growing part of the electorate in Ohio.

  107. 107.

    IowaOldLady

    @Violet: As I watch people struggle with Obamacare and consider what to do about Medicare D and look at you talking about “terminated” coverage, I think what’s most upsetting is how complicated and confusing it all feels. It’s scary and frustrating and humiliating to be unable to deal with it.

    Another good reason for single payer.

  108. 108.

    Mike in NC

    @gene108: Was in NJ one weekend years ago when Whitman was in office. I saw how apparently she’d cut taxes on the rich so far that to compensate state tax agents were showing up at weekend flea markets and yard sales to shake down the poor shmucks selling used baby clothing and so forth for a few bucks. Asshole.

  110. 110.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Redshift:
    They really, seriously, honestly believed Obamacare would be a disaster and right as they launched their hostage taking the nation would be screaming from the giant price hikes and the first stories about old people euthanized would be rolling out. The crazies believed that, and half the merely asshole Reps believed it because of the bubble. The rest figured this was their last hand anyway, might as well call.

  111. 111.

    Bob's Had Enough

    @beltane: As soon as things are up and running we need some “Rate Your Insurance Company” sites. Yelp! them.

    Going forward insurance companies are going to be making money from volume, their ability to profit by deny and screw will be greatly diminished as they must spend 80% to 85% of revenue on health care.

    Create places where people can look to see who is giving good customer service and we’ll see customer service improve at all insurance companies.

    Well, perhaps not at the ones working their way to extinction….

  116. 116.

    mai naem

    I’ve been thinking recently that Rafael “Ted” Cruz is actually a Democratic Mole in the GOP. He sure is acting like one.

  118. 118.

    e.a.f.

    Ted Cruz’s 15 minutes is over. He looks like a rabid fool.

    Americans loose more money because of untreated illnesses, premature deaths, lack of prenatal care, high infant mortality rates; than they ever will with an Affordable Care Act.

    Employers don’t have to cut hours. They and their employees can simply go to the exchanges and find a plan which works best for them. There are subsidies available, so it maybe the workers can find better plans than their employers provide. Smart employers will sit down with their employees and see what works best for them.

    Medical costs won’t be going up. we may find insurance companies start having “discussions” with hospitals about their charges of $20 for a band aid. In the end, every one will win. A healthy population is a less expensive one.

    Ted Cruz and his teabaggers have not offered one alternative, for the 45 million previously uninsured Americans. Ted Cruz and his teabaggers haven’t offered one alternative for children who can’t be covered by their parent’s medical plans because of a “previous exsisting” condition. What rot! Civilized countries do not deny children health care. That is what is comes down to. Ted cruz and his tea baggers want to ensure children do not receive adequate health care and are at risk of dying prematurely. Nice peoople ?????

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