.
A small bit of brightness, courtesy commentor Piratedan:
An Occupy Wall Street spin-off group has bought up $14.7 million worth of Americans’ personal medical debt and forgiven it over the last year as part of its Rolling Jubilee project, the group announced Monday.
The Rolling Jubilee project, organized by Occupy Wall Street’s Strike Debt group, has so far spent $400,000 to buy the debt, in the process relieving 2,693 people of the money they owed for medical services Occupy thinks should be free…
The project, which launched on Nov. 15, 2012, raises money through small, individual contributions, and then uses that money to purchase distressed and defaulted debt from the lenders, who in this case are hospitals or medical groups…
Andrew Ross, a member of Occupy’s Strike Debt group and a professor at New York University, said the group was able to buy debt at a 50-to-1 ratio…
“One person wrote back and said that he had gone through periods of being homeless and he was trying to get back on his feet,” Ross said, calling the elimination of debt a huge relief.
Ross said the group has $200,000 left to spend, and they hope to target student loan debt next.
To address the objection most often raised when I wrote about this last year, the Strike Debt group reiterates in the NBC comment section:
Before embarking on the Rolling Jubilee, we consulted with the #1-ranked tax attorney in the USA. Here is what he had to say: (in short: No, debtors will not have to worry about income taxes for debt cancellation).
***********
What’s on the agenda for the day?
Joseph Nobles
Run tell dat to the Tea Party. Run tell dat to James Freaking O’Keefe.
Patricia Kayden
What Occupy is doing is great. I always wondered what their legacy would be. Good to see that they’re doing some good.
Mustang Bobby
Today will be dedicated to doing my job despite being turned down for a promotion because I’m apparently too good at the one I do and giving me the upgrade would jeopardize the rest of office. That’s the party line, at any rate.
NotMax
And no gag reflex to suppress.
raven
The consensus on Morning Joe is to scrap the ACA. What a fucking shock.
BillinGlendaleCA
@raven: I just turned that crap off.
raven
@BillinGlendaleCA: It’s 26 degrees out and the dogs are fixin to get walked!
Baud
@Patricia Kayden:
Agree. Good for them.
@raven:
That opinion was formed a long time ago. Who cares?
raven
@Baud: I report, you decide.
Baud
@raven:
You are truly fair and balanced, Raven. ;-)
Schlemizel
@Mustang Bobby:
Sorry to hear that.
I got screwed like that back in the mid-90s. The job I really wanted was available and they gave it to an incompetent obnoxious doofus despite knowing I wanted it and was better qualified. The boss knew I was upset and tried to explain it to be by saying, “You know we can’t put him in your job he would ruin the business so I didn’t have a choice.” My retort was “So you are telling me I’m being shafted because I am a good employee, why would I want to do a good job from now on.” That didn’t go over well so I started sending out resumes and left a few months later. I told my boss maybe they could replace me with an obnoxious incompetent so he was promote-able.
Fuck ’em.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: Isn’t that a little generous? I mean, he watches Morning Joe every morning. I have never seen a clearer sign of self loathing.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@raven: I’m sure they were all just as quick (it’s been not quite six weeks since the launch of the website that is one part of the ACA, right?) to call for Bush-Cheney to pull out of Iraq
ETA: how many times was there some variant of “Even Bill Clinton says…”?
Schlemizel
@raven:
Stewart had a great line on TDS Monday when they tore FAUX and CBS apart for the Benghazi thing. Steve Douchey made some inartful statement about how FAUX had been reporting this and it must be true because now even some other new show was saying it. TDS suggested a new motto:
“We report, you might want to check with someone else”
I thought that was perfect.
@OzarkHillbilly:
I always thought is was a sign of masochism but maybe those go hand in hand
OzarkHillbilly
@Schlemizel: Either that or he is just trying to prove to us young pups that he is still the toughest guy on the internets.
JPL
It’s 24 degrees outside but nice and toasty inside. We will have another cool night then a warm up. My sweet potatoes are in a shed and I did take the time to cover them so they wouldn’t freeze.
MrSnrub
@Mustang Bobby: Apparently, I can’t get promoted because I don’t choose to work 60 hours a week.
Botsplainer
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/11/12/gop-lawmaker-scheduled-to-take-part-in-rally-calling-for-obamas-overthrow-in-second-american-revolution/
Is it too much for me to hope that some of the Hoverround pilots that will attend this rally will come armed, that they’ll try and back up the distinguished speaker list as they try and crash the gates, and that the action is all captured on video for distribution by pay per view, the proceeds to be applied toward the national debt?
I’d watch that repeatedly, from spit-frothing beginning to the end, when cleanup crews are clearing the remains with snow shovels.
Kay
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I love how there’s no taking responsibility, at all, on the part of insurance companies. They sold those policies to people after 2010 and they knew the policies wouldn’t comport with federal law. The working assumption is now they’ll screw and deceive their customers unless and until there’s a specific rule written and enforced stopping them from doing that. That’s just accepted business practice.
My 21 year old is working for a large manufacturer and I helped him pick his employer-provided plan last month. All of the plans say “qualified under the PPACA”, so large employers managed to plan ahead and comport with the law, but the private insurance co. market players just decided to pretend this wasn’t going to happen and continued to sell the policies.
OzarkHillbilly
@JPL:
15 degrees, and I had the wood stove cooking for my wife the *lizard* when she got up. Now that she is gone I have to tone it down before it drives me out of the house.
* what she calls herself. She comes from the Mediterranean, or at least that is her excuse.
NotMax
Got down to low 50s, perhaps high 40s, last night. Not quite that chilly so far tonight. Had to drag out the heavy blanket.
@JPL
Understand perfectly well what you said, but boy oh boy, does that line ever sound like it could be a recognition code from a low-budget spy movie.
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay:
SOP. SSDD.
JPL
@NotMax: You will pry my sweet potatoes from my cold dead hands. You take necessary steps to protect the only produce from your summer garden. My fall garden is doing pretty good though.
Kay
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I heard a lady interviewed yesterday and her whole complaint was “the government” should have told her the plan might be cancelled. While that may be true, it is also true that the company that took her money for the premiums could have told her “we’ll be cancelling this right before we absolutely have to comply with the law”. I don’t know that we can have it both ways- a regulated private market that also allows insurers to do and sell anything they want.
Ash Can
@Patricia Kayden: It’s great to see how this spinoff group has settled on this (quite laudable) purpose. The problem with the original OWS was that it became aimless and ineffective. If this is what it has evolved into then it was all worth it.
Kay
@OzarkHillbilly:
I don’t know that it can ever work without some basic understanding or acceptance of how we’re all going to be paying for things we don’t “use”. Can you imagine if people approached Medicare like this? “I’ll never get prostate cancer so I want that part of my payment adjusted. I want the Medicare plan that covers only my specific health needs.”
I mean, let’s just hang it up and we can all head out to the marketplace and take our chances.
OzarkHillbilly
@NotMax: Either that or a pimp talking about his ladies/
Botsplainer
The number keeps appearing. GOP consultants know it, too.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/house-republicans-say-what-gop-crisis
Linda Featheringill
29 degrees in Philly. I’m recovering from a week of pancreatitis and am just now reaching the point where I actually care about the assholes running the world. [I didn’t say I had recovered a cheerful mood.]
@JPL:
My fall garden is made up entirely of a clutch of cabbage plants. I have no idea what I’m doing here. We’ll see, I guess.
Baud
@Kay:
I’m still waiting for my Iraq rebate. Haven’t used it at all. I wasn’t even greeted a liberator. :-(
WereBear
Cripes! Glad you are better.
My own promotion is doing okay so far. Working for a non-profit means the raise can be viewed under a microscope, and it’s more hours, but also more fun things.
I was efficient enough to eliminate my old job, so I’m glad I got somewhere to go.
Kay
@Baud:
Yeah, and the next time someone wants to tell me what a master politician Bill Clinton is, The Best of the Century, I’ll remind them of this:
“Allowed”. Great Right wing framing there. Thanks, Bill.
MikeJ
@MrSnrub:
60 hour work weeks are a symptom of incompetent management.
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay:
Americans by and large are too selfish to accept that quietly. I said a couple days ago that we as a country have bought into the myth of ‘individualism’. That our success or failure is determined by our own actions, that luck has nothing to do with it. It is absolute BS, but that attitude is what allows us to look down on others less fortunate.
Randy P
One of mine is roasted vegetables, and I love this time of year for that, grabbing any plausible-looking winter vegetable at the grocery store. Last week I made a big batch with leeks, sweet potatoes, parsnips, and brussels. Sometimes I cut up some carrots too. Usually just toss on some olive oil and a few herbs and most of the flavor is from the veggies themselves. The parsnips were an experiment (successful I think), the others are my standard selection.
So I’m feeling a little stuck in a rut both on the veggie selection and the seasoning. Open to suggestions.
Baud
@Kay:
Heard on the news that some of the proposals by Democrats will be to require insurance companies to keep offering their old policies. Don’t know what to make of that.
Linda Featheringill
@Randy P:
Roasted veggies: I use Montreal steak seasoning (McCormick?).Must include the long yellow squash and zucchini is also good.
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay:
He helped get Obama re-elected. Now it is time to throw O under the bus so that Hillary can get elected.
Patricia Kayden
@raven: Even Mika?!! Scrap the ACA and then do what? What happens to the uninsured?
Elizabelle
@Kay:
In a better country, Mr. Cheney would be saying “allowed” from The Hague, or writing us his thoughts from a cozy cell somewhere.
The Architects of Freedom (TM) in RepublicanLand “allow” upwards of 40 million Americans to sicken and die without any access to affordable insurance and healthcare at all.
They also “allow” the for-profit collection agencies that chase down Americans with no or unacceptable insurance who happened to have a serious illness or injury.
A lot of these folks who are whining about losing their “affordable” policies that don’t comply will be wailing if they have to use them, and then discover the fine print.
Elizabelle
@Patricia Kayden:
Who cares about the uninsured?
They’re unworthy.
Patricia Kayden
@Ash Can: I agree with you. I never really admired OWS when it was at its height since it didn’t appear to have any purpose. Glad to see that they’re actually doing something positive and longlasting.
Eric U.
the actual merits of the ACA have never been discussed in the media, it’s always the horserace. There would be no reason to discuss the horserace if the state of the medical insurance market in the U.S. was discussed on a truthful basis.
Patricia Kayden
@Elizabelle: Just have to shake my head at the coldness of that question which unfortunately reflects too many people’s attitude in this country.
Elizabelle
@Kay:
FYWP just ate my response.
In a better country, Dick Cheney would be saying “allowed” from The Hague, or from a jail cell.
The Architects of Freedom (TM) in the Republican Party “allow” over 40 million Americans to sicken and die without access to affordable healthcare, in this richest of nations.
They “allow” debt collectors to harrass those uninsured whose families were unlucky enough to be seriously ill or injured and run up the bills.
Now he wants to “allow” people with policies that don’t conform to ACA’s minimal standards to keep them, and they will be “allowed” to wail as loudly as they’d like once they encounter major medical expenses and find out their policies were discontinued under ACA because they’re insufficient.
We’re America. We’re “allowed.”
OzarkHillbilly
@Randy P: Ever use tarragon? Has a nice *sweet* edge to it that imparts a lot of flavor.
* not sure that is quite the right word, but the best I can do just now.
Elizabelle
I think Obama should “allow” the FTC or whoever regulates to go after health insurance companies post haste and make them spell out — in plain language — why the companies are dropping subscribers’ plans.
Do not let them blame it on Obamacare. They’re lying and poisoning the well. Make them stop.
No fine print.
Patrick
@OzarkHillbilly:
I have no idea why anybody would give a rats a** what Joe Scarborough thinks about the ACA. His opinion is utterly irrelevant. BTW – here’s what Joe S said about the Iraq war just after it started:
Why should I care about somebody’s opinion when they were so utterly wrong about the Iraq war?
Botsplainer
@Patricia Kayden:
The secular Calvinism of the Randian Objectivists and the Calvinism of the Christianists will take care of the problem.
PurpleGirl
Re: On being too competent for a job: Back in the early 1980s, I worked for several months as a temp secretary at NYU in one of the Psychology Department’s offices. I was there to type mathematical papers, a spot that I was supposed to be hired for as permanent employee. (I came to the notice of one of the professors who worked with mathematics through a student whose Ph.D. dissertation I had typed.)
When it came time to finalize the hire, they didn’t hire me. The manager of the support staff told me that the hire had been cancelled by the Dept. chair because of my stutter. The floor secretaries shared reception/phone answering during the lunch period of the regular receptionists/switchboard staff. They (whoever they are) had decided that I wouldn’t be able to take a turn because of the stutter. The other floor secretaries would be unhappy. Also, there were already complaints that the professors and graduate students were trying to get their papers assigned to me to type because I did superior work in either understanding handwriting or following the text and fixing things (editing while I typed). At the time, NYU hired high school graduates for the floor secretary spots. Unfortunately the professor who wanted me was away from NYU that summer and was not there long enough to fight for me.
(I used an IBM Selectric to type the mathematics.)
NotMax
@Randy P
Real easy is dribbling some olive oil on fresh green beans laid out on a cookie sheet or similar pan and oven-roasting them.
One of my favorite winter veggie dishes is curried eggplant in tomato sauce served over rice. One of those dishes that gets better day by day as it sits in the fridge when I make a big pot of it. If it’s something you might be interested in making, can dig out the recipe.
Patrick
@raven:
Not sure why anybody cares what Joe S thinks. Here’s his wise opinion about the Iraq war.
http://www.fair.org/blog/2013/03/19/scarborough-remembers-some-iraq-words-but-not-his-own/
If they were so wrong about the Iraq war, why should I care about their opinion about the ACA? BTW – he is a Republican and it has been the Republican stance from day 1 to be against the ACA. So, no news there.
Randy P
Ah, some excellent suggestions for my next batch. Definitely going to try tarragon & I don’t know how I managed to forget about green & yellow squash. Also all the other squashes are on the shelves, especially acorn squash. I should start using them. Maybe even pumpkin if they’re still out there?
Farmers markets around here often have less common stuff, like bok choy and fennel. Anyone ever work with those? Also kale in huge quantities. I’ve been toying with the idea for several years of joining a farm co-op, the kind of deal where you accept a box of whatever they’ve got every week. I think it’s called a CSA. But the stories of “five pounds of kale” have scared me off.
aimai
@Randy P: My current rut is barley. I ran out of stuff to cook and made a soup yesterday that was no more than sauteed onions and garlic, pearl barley, a half cup of red lentils, chicken broth, parsley and the odd bits of spinach I had left in half a bag. It was delicious and so warming.
I second OzarkHillbillies recommendation of tarragon but it has to be used sparingly and I don’t think it will work with the roasted vegetables because it will dry it out too much (the fresh form) and the dried stuff always tastes slightly medicinal to me. If you want to really get sassy make a mixture of crushed chili pepper/sesame seeds/dried coconut/cumin and dried coriander seed (toast it and crush it) and then toss it with your vegetables at the last minute. Killer and right out of the thyme/sage/rosemary mixes you are probably using.
NotMax
@Randy P
Another winter goodie from the market is spaghetti squash.
Cut in half lengthwise, scoop out all the seeds, lay cut side down in pot of boiling salted water for about 20 minutes or so, then use a fork to scrape out the flesh (it comes out in strands, like spaghetti).
Good with plain butter and parmesan (maybe a dash of nutmeg, too), but also works well with spaghetti sauce poured on it just as if it was pasta.
Patrick
@Patricia Kayden:
That’s the thing with people like Joe S, Mika, Blitzer etc. It is so easy to sit there and spout garbage like “scrap the ACA”. What are they offering as a credible alternative? Nothing! So, basically what they are saying is “I got mine, s*** you”.
aimai
@Randy P: You can make delicious lemony salads with thinly sliced fennell, or use it as you would any vegetable in a tomato soup (fennel, onion, leeks, crushed tomatoes, rosemary, and goat cheese makes a killer soup). We go through so much kale that 5 pounds wouldn’t be enough for us. bok choy I find boring. If you get too much kale you can blanch it and freeze it to throw into soups later. We sautee it with garlic/ginger/garam masala for indian style saag.
Kay
@OzarkHillbilly:
So what? Plenty of Democrats helped get Clinton elected. If Hillary Clinton runs and Obama campaigns for her (which he will) I’ll wait and see if we hear all this “Obama helped get Clinton elected”. I doubt it.
Cassidy
@MrSnrub: Clearly you aren’t wearing enough flair.
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay:
I think you missed my point, which is that in the big dogs head, because he “helped”, he now gets to point out how O is not half the prez Hillary will be.
The irony is that our most recent ex-prez Bush is being more respectful and understanding of the difficulties Obama has had to face than O’s own supposed ally Clinton.
Suffern ACE
@Botsplainer: so is Elizabeth Warren the Democratic equivalent of Bob Barr? Because you often see Democratic former and current officers at these kinds of rallies. You know. Looking for votes.
shelly
“” rally outside the White House, which is billed as “the beginning of the peaceful, nonviolent second American Revolution.”
*************
Hmmmm, since 2008 there’s been as many ‘beginnings of the second American Revolution’ as there’s been votes to repeal Obamacare.
rikyrah
So….
Even with Voter ID
A Voter purge at 11:58 pm right before elections
Changing the rules for provisional ballots IN THE MIDDLE OF THE COUNT IN A SINGLE DEMOCRATIC PRECINCT..
……………………….
Dem appears to prevail in Virginia
11/13/13 08:38 AM
By Steve Benen
A week after the 2013 elections, there’s one incredibly close race the political world is watching with great interest: who’ll be Virginia’s new state attorney general?
The vote-counting process ended last night, and as the dust settled, Democrat Mark Herring finished with 163 more votes than Republican Mark Obenshain – out of more than 2.2 million votes cast. Overnight, Herring declared victory.
So, is that it? Of course not. Given the margin, Obenshain has not conceded the race – it stands to reason that if the roles were reversed, Herring wouldn’t concede, either – and a statewide recount is probably inevitable. That, however, can’t begin until these preliminary tallies are certified, and that won’t happen until Nov. 25.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/dem-appears-prevail-virginia
handsmile
To juxtapose with the announcement of OWS/Strke the Debt’s purchase of over $14m in personal medical debt*, this happened in New York City last night:
Ten times that amount ($142.4m) was paid by a yet undisclosed buyer for a triptych by the late British painter Francis Bacon at Christie’s auction ouse. This sum shattered by more than $20m the former record price for a work of art paid last year for a pastel version of Munch’s The Scream.
http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/nov/13/francis-bacon-painting-lucian-freud
This is my professional field and this sale (these sales) absolutely disgusts me.
*(I am proud to say that the handsmiles “purchased” a very tiny part of that debt through our contribution to Strike the Debt’s “Rolling Jubilee” project.)
http://rollingjubilee.org/
Anne Laurie/Piratedan: thanks for posting that “small bit of brightness” here.
piratedan
@Patricia Kayden: the uninsured don’t watch Morning Joe, hence they don’t matter
piratedan
@handsmile: I sent them some money too and extremely pleased to see them turn rhetoric into deeds, the scary thing about it is that this allows people that couldn’t pay an opportunity to have their lives back. Not sure if there’s a better gift to be had during the holidays other than helping folks in the Philippines to survive during their crisis.
NotMax
Queen Elizabeth had better watch her back….
rikyrah
Wall Street’s nightmare: President Elizabeth Warren
By BEN WHITE and MAGGIE HABERMAN | 11/11/13 8:55 PM EST Updated: 11/12/13 7:44 PM EST
NEW YORK — There are three words that strike terror in the hearts of Wall Street bankers and corporate executives across the land: President Elizabeth Warren.
Anxiety over Warren grew Monday after a magazine report suggested the bank-bashing Democratic senator from Massachusetts could mount a presidential bid in 2016 and not necessarily defer to Hillary Clinton — who is viewed as far more business friendly — for the party’s nomination
And the fear is not only that Warren, who channels an increasingly popular strain of Occupy Wall Street-style anti-corporatism, might win. That is viewed by many political analysts as a slim possibility. The fear is also that a Warren candidacy, or even the threat of one, would push Clinton to the left in the primaries and revive arguments about breaking up the nation’s largest banks, raising taxes on the wealthy and otherwise stoke populist anger that is likely to also play a big role in the Republican primaries.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/11/wall-street-elizabeth-warren-president-2016-elections-99697.html#ixzz2kXILZga0
MrSnrub
@Cassidy: But I’m wearing the mandated 15 pieces!
Patrick
@Botsplainer:
We are a democracy. We just had an election where Obama easily won. What is it about respecting the people’s voice that the far far right are so much against?
NotMax
@rikyrah
Politico, first with the least. Never met a meme they couldn’t exploit.
“All the news that fits, we print.”
Suffern ACE
@rikyrah: I think we’ve gone over this. Elizabeth Warren has given no signs that she is interested in running for president. The MoU have nightmares about many things. This is like running a story on the fear that you’re giving a speech in your underwear.
Next up! The possibility that Bill di Blasio is forming death squads to kill Iowan voters means Chris Christie can’t win Iowa. Oh wait. We had that fever dream of elite poop yesterday as well.
Tim in SF
Never thought I would see a Libana video posted here. Interesting.
Kropadope
@MrSnrub: AKA, the minimum required. Bump it up.
handsmile
@piratedan:
Well, at least some part of their lives back. I am so pleased to learn that you contributed to the Jubilee as well!
As you know, there are a bazillion worthy causes and at this moment, humanitarian relief for the Philippines rightfully demands the world’s attention. Here’s another shout-out to the magnificent Doctors without Borders/Medecins san Frontiers:
http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/
For those fortunate enough to be able to consider charitable contributions, it’s incumbent on us to do due diligence on the management/effectiveness of any particular organization, and then choose the ones whose missions speak most profoundly to us. As a donor, volunteer, former staff member and director of several charitable/not-for-profit groups, my commitment to and personal knowledge of philanthropy is what lay behind my revulsion at a commenter on yesterday’s Philippines relief thread here.
thruppence
@Randy P: Fennel roasts beautifully and has a flavor similar to tarragon. Two birds.
aimai
@thruppence: Oh, yes. I spent one autumn sauteeing and caramelizing fennell on top of the stove and deglazing the pan with vermouth and bacon (yes, you can deglaze with bacon, why do you ask?).
geg6
@Randy P:
Fennel is one of my absolute favorites things ever. They are super sweet when roasted or sauteed so that they get carmelized. I use them all the time. They are also great raw and sliced very thinly into salads.
PurpleGirl
@Tim in SF: This is the second one AL has posted. The other one was last week on November 9th. Song: I Arise Facing East.
See https://balloon-juice.com/page/3/
shecky
Hopefully, Jubillee got those financial mismanagement concerns ironed out. That was some amateur level cluelessness going on.
kc
@Botsplainer:
Why the fuck is he not in prison?
ranchandsyrup
Good interview with Allie Brosh of Hyperbole and a Half fame. http://www.npr.org/2013/11/12/244758140/even-when-it-hurts-alot-brosh-faces-life-with-plenty-of-hyperbole
Death Panel Truck
@handsmile: I gave to the Philippine Red Cross. You have to donate in Philippine pesos. P820 is roughly $20. Every little bit helps.
mere mortal
That’s $150 per, to help people who had some bad luck in health out from under an average of a $7,500 bankruptcy bomb.
That’s just astounding.
satby
@piratedan: I sent some donations to Rolling Jubilee, too, and they could use more. Can’t link on the mobile but anyone can Google and get the site. Even small donations cancel many times their size of debt, so throwing a few bucks their way is really worth it.
Jason
@Mustang Bobby: Dude, there’s a play there.
Jason
@Mustang Bobby: Dude, there’s a play there.