I’ve got CNN’s sucky app on my phone, and sometimes I’ll see a breaking news alert that disappears as soon as I pick the phone up, before I can read the whole thing. That happened a little while ago, and all I saw was “Loretta Lyn…” — so I assumed Loretta Lynn had died.
I had a sad about that because I like her. But as it turns out, Loretta Lynn is just fine; in fact, the octogenarian recently inked a multi-album deal, according to Rolling Stone.
The “Loretta Lyn…” breaking news message was actually about Loretta Lynch, the US Attorney in Brooklyn who President Obama is supposedly going to nominate to replace Eric Holder as US AG, according to CNN. From what little I could find online about her, Ms. Lynch sounds like a great choice.
So here’s a Loretta Lynn classic to celebrate the nomination of someone who almost shares a name with the First Lady of Country Music.
Keith G
An entertaining twist. Good job.
big ole hound
I believe Patsy Cline is still the First Lady of Country Music. I saw Loretta once at a state fair about 1990. It was sad. She forgot words and was so smashed she couldn’t do the evening show. It seems she got her life together, I was surprised how tiny she is…under five feet but with that big voice.
SiubhanDuinne
Loretta Lynch looks like a very good choice. Thanks for the alert, Betty.
MattF
@big ole hound: Maybe I’m prejudiced, but I think female country singers outshine the men by orders of magnitude. And, btw, Van Lear Rose is terrific.
Mnemosyne
I remember seeing Coal Miner’s Daughter in first release. Really, really great movie and they didn’t shy away too much from some of the creepy/controlling aspects of her marriage (though they did stay married until Doo died in 1996).
kindness
What? Loretta Lynn is joining The Rolling Stones???!?
Betty Cracker
@kindness: Well, they’re all about the same age…
gbear
Hopefully Loretta’s new contract has a restraining order against Jack White producing the sessions. That album had what is likely the worst version of Shakin’ All Over ever released.
Why do we even pretend that we’re going to have a new AG in the next two years? No AG, no surgeon general, no judges, no nothing because the house and senate would rather watch the wings fall off of AirObama and plunge into the ocean.
Omnes Omnibus
@gbear:
Lame duck session.
gbear
@gbear: GAH. I got Wanda Jackson mixed up with Loretta [turns beet red]. Sorry.
MattF
@gbear: I kinda like Jack White. I agree that his taste has some… lapses, but at least he’s willing to take a chance.
Bobby B.
Speaking of Sissy Spacek, did anybody see her in 1972’s “Prime Cut”? Really emphasizes the “being viewed as cuts of meat” POV. Not many artistes would show bush for a mainstream movie these days (but I only watched it for the articles).
Omnes Omnibus
@Bobby B.: Show bush? Really?
EthylEster
BC wrote:
WHY?
Do you also wear a hair shirt and flagellate yourself continuously?
Howard Beale IV
BREAKING: SCTOUS to hear King vs. Burwell.
Betty Cracker
@EthylEster: I’m not a fan of CNN, but they do seem quickest on the breaking news releases. Then I can go read about whatever happened on a more credible media site.
Betty Cracker
@Howard Beale IV: Uh-oh.
JMV Pyro
OT, but…
Shit
The eagerness at taking this thing up makes me incredibly goddamn nervous. It’s basically going to rest entirely on Roberts and Kennedy, and even then there’s a good chance they’ll pull another Medicaid Expansion type thing and devolve more power to the states.
Omnes Omnibus
@Betty Cracker: It was inevitable that they were going to take it given the circuit split.
gbear
@MattF: He’s done some good stuff but, to me, he’s just so incredibly overrated; he has an audience that worships his lapses.
Cool is the rule but sometimes bad is bad…
raven
I like Crystal
Omnes Omnibus
@raven: Meth or Gayle?
Jewish Steel
I have handed off the singing duties on Coal Miner’s Daughter from my wife to her sister. My wife sounds more like Lynn but she finds the song difficult. My SIL does the accent better and sings more accurately than both of us.
Cacti
@JMV Pyro:
I don’t think Roberts can pass up a second chance to completely screw the poors and the President at the same time.
Jewish Steel
Why I’ve seen her fingers bleed to complain there was no need. She’s smiled in mommie’s understanding way.
This line always cracks me up. Poor mommy smiling while holding her bloody fingers aloft.
Belafon
@Omnes Omnibus: A court split that was vacated. It is disconcerting that they’re so willing to take it, but it only takes four of the justices to review a case.
Kryptik, A Man Without A Country
@Betty Cracker:
@Howard Beale IV:
@JMV Pyro:
I can’t imagine anything coming out of that which doesn’t screw us six ways from sunday. But you guys already know what a boundless font of optimism I’ve been these days, so, yeah.
hoodie
@Omnes Omnibus: I thought the circuit split was resolved by an en banc ruling in the DC circuit. Seems like they’re teeing up a legislative drive for the newly Republican congress, e.g., rule that the subsidies are not valid by virtue of an “error” in the Act. This, of course, will require surgery by Drs. Boehner and McConnell, who will proceed to amputate all four limbs to remove a mole that isn’t even cancerous. Because a bunch of folks won’t be able to get subsidies, Obama will be hard pressed to veto the resulting Frankenstein monster.
Betty Cracker
@Jewish Steel: My favorite lyrics from that song:
The work we done was hard,
at night we’d sleep ’cause we were tired
Because “hard” and “tired” totally rhyme! At least when Loretta says the words!
Omnes Omnibus
@Belafon: From a purely legal, statutory interpretation viewpoint this case is a no brainer. As a political football case, I am not going to go out on a limb. It will be anywhere from 6-3 upholding the law to 5-4 against. It should be 9-0 to uphold the law on this issue, but Scalia, Alito, and Thomas are guaranteed to be assholes.
Omnes Omnibus
@Belafon: @hoodie: Oops, the en banc decision had slipped my mind.
Belafon
@Omnes Omnibus: Agreed. My one bit of optimism – however small – is that Kennedy, Scalia, Alito, and Thomas could have asked for the review, even though the other five will rule in favor of the government’s interpretation.
shelley
Loved the scene in Coal Miner’s Daughter when she’s composing said song.
Doo: Where’d you get the idea for that?
Loretta: (smacking his foot away) Where’d ya think?
************
Oh, and in that clip, love the announcer’s pompador!
raven
See if ya’ll like this Newyorican country girl.
Hooray for the Riff Raff
JMV Pyro
@Cacti:
And that’s what scares me. Of course, there’s the flip side that the insurance companies/hospital industry would lose millions of customers to a ruling that get’s rid of the subsidies, so Roberts has those people breathing down his neck, but I just don’t know if the Supremes even care about that anymore.
When would they be able to actually do this? After OE2 at least right? The results of a 5-4 against ruling would be catastrophic for all those people who have insurance thanks to the law.
Cacti
@Belafon:
The states with entirely federally administered exchanges for the individual market include all of the Romney states except for Idaho and Kentucky.
The states voting for Republican rule are the ones predominantly lined up to take it in the shorts from an adverse SCOTUS decision. Not sure how much that will weigh into the thinking of the Republican 5.
Betty Cracker
@Cacti:
From a purely political POV, letting them reap what they sow sounds attractive. From a humane standpoint, not so much.
brantl
I never liked Lorretta Lynn, I just didn’t.
shelley
@brantl: You can use the present tense. She’s still kicking.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)
@Betty Cracker: Even from a political standpoint that’s a non-starter. For god’s sake, can people stop and realize that the individuals who would take this in the shorts are not, predominantly, the ones who voted for Republicans? Schadenfreude about this is wildly misplaced and represents a failure of empathy.
Cacti
@Betty Cracker:
Yup.
Not to mention, even in the reddest of states, you’ll usually find at least 4 of every 10 voters didn’t pull the lever for insanity. But when 50%+1 gets you 100% of the contested office, a sizeable minority gets completely boned in the process.
The inherent flaw of democratic government.
Calouste
@Cacti:
FTFY.
HW3
Not only is Loretta all right, she’s one of the cool kids still.
Loretta Lynn & Jack White “Portland, Oregon”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuC_l3ymXhM
Betty Cracker
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN): I’m not talking about schaudenfreude; I’m talking about the consequences of elections. If the Supreme Court strips away care people depend on, maybe people will wake the hell up and realize that the Republicans are all in for the plutocrats and don’t give a shit about ordinary Americans. Maybe people who don’t vote because they don’t think it makes a difference will realize they’re wrong. That’s what I meant by political consequences; it has nothing to do with gloating.
Howard Beale IV
@Betty Cracker: Problem is that the seeds of this potential disaster were sewn decades ago, and the attack vector is outside of the normal legislative channels.
One of the architects of the ACA’s judicial attacks, CATO’s Michael Cannon, has to be as high as a Georgia Pine right about now.
schrodinger's cat
@Betty Cracker: True, stupidity has its consequences. Being born in the richest country in the world will shield you from it, but only up to a point.
catclub
@Omnes Omnibus: Except the circuits un-split after the en banc review.
Omnes Omnibus
@catclub: Yes, and I noted my goof further down. Thank you.
Barbara
Somehow having trouble reconciling Loretta’s hardscrabble childhood and those pearly-whites in that video. They can’t possibly be her original set.
Sorry, inherited this obsession with celebrity teeth from my mom.
Matt McIrvin
@Cacti:
The people in control in these states are not the people who are going to lose insurance. The people in control want those people to lose their insurance, and will laugh and laugh as they suffer and die.
This is what’s wrong with thinking of justice and punishment on a state-by-state basis. There is no justice here.
Matt McIrvin
@Betty Cracker:
Ha ha no. They’ll be told that Obamacare took their Obamacare subsidies away, and they’ll support repealing Obamacare to get their Obamacare back.
The problem with assuming any sort of accountability is that, basically, we are now running on insane systems of anti-logic and can only scream into the abyss.
burnspbesq
@Howard Beale IV:
Fcuk.
JPL
If states so choose, can they hire the federal government to run the exchange? That might get a few of the states back on board because their citizens might demand it. The health care law does more then subsidies.
Mike E
CNN app? Is it attached to a brick that you inter-face with? Sounds like it’s working as intended.
burnspbesq
@Omnes Omnibus:
What circuit split? The panel opinion in Halbig was vacated when rehearing en banc Was granted.
Howard Beale IV
@burnspbesq: Right now, Michael Cannon of CATO is probably higher than a Georgia Pine.
Betty Cracker
@Matt McIrvin: I’m not so sure about that. The Republicans made a weekly dog-and-pony show of repealing it — they own killing Obamacare. Nobody paid much attention to their circus at the time, but if middle-class people suddenly find themselves re-subjected to pre-x conditions, their college-age kids thrown off their health plans, health costs rising again, millions of formerly insured people dumped, etc., it might penetrate the bubble of complacency. Maybe not, but it might. Looks like there’s a pretty good chance we’ll find out.
Betty Cracker
@Mike E: What. Ever.
JPL
@burnspbesq: Is there an end round by encouraging states to pay the federal government a dollar to run the exchange>? GA won’t but I expect some states will. The southern states they lose are less healthy anyway..
Omnes Omnibus
@burnspbesq: Yes, I fucked up and forgot about it. I also acknowledged my error further down in the thread.
Howard Beale IV
@burnspbesq: Michael Cannon is probably higher than a Georgia Pine on the news.
burnspbesq
And this on the same day that the ACLU says it’s not going to request rehearing en banc of the Sixth Circuit’s bat-guano-crazy panel opinion in the marriage-equality cases, and instead are going to petition for cert immediately..
I love you guys, and i will continue to be a member, but ARE Y’ALL OUT OF YOUR EVER-LOVIN’ MINDS?
mai naem mobile
Loretta Lynn is a GOPr along with her sister Crystal Gayle. I think she sang at an 80s or 92 GOP convention.
Matt McIrvin
@Betty Cracker: Based on the last time the Supreme Court had the opportunity to kill the ACA and just hobbled it instead, I suspect the whole ACA isn’t going to be thrown out; what will go away is the specific provision at issue in King v. Burwell, the federal subsidies for plans bought on the federal exchange. They’ll find it severable.
So a lot of those things aren’t going to go away, another big wodge of medium-low-income red-staters are just going to lose their coverage. Which means it won’t necessarily have the visibility of a complete repeal.
burnspbesq
@JPL:
In a rational world, yes. But if you can waterboard the statutory language so that it says what plaintiffs want it to say, it’s a trivial step to get to “‘established’ does not mean ‘subcontracted.'”
burnspbesq
@Omnes Omnibus:
And i requested that my comment be deleted.
JPL
@burnspbesq: f..k well never mind.. I’ll just say it FUCK
Matt McIrvin
@burnspbesq: Hmm… probably they figure that either the Fifth Circuit or the Eleventh is going to create a circuit split anyway, and if the Supreme Court decision happens later rather than sooner, one of the liberals might die first (and their seat will remain vacant until a Republican President gets in), whereas now they’ve got better than even odds of getting the four liberals plus Kennedy.
It’s a risk, but I can see the reasoning.
Omnes Omnibus
@burnspbesq: Fair enough. I would do the same, but the window has passed.
burnspbesq
@Matt McIrvin:
And they may think they will never get a better vehicle than the craptastic Sixth Circuit panel opionion.
Still, I’m old school. I was taught to play every card in the procedural deck.
Howard Beale IV
@burnspbesq: Didn’t take [email protected]Howard Beale IV:
Didn’t take long….
mai naem mobile
@Betty Cracker: they dont give a shit. I deal with old folks at work. Trust me they know about the insurance problems. If its not their kids it their grandkids who havent had insurance at some point in the last decade. They still don’t like the ooga booga.black guy in the WH. I was at a store this morning with mostly old people. I wanted to call Flake, McCain and Mcconnell to get rid of medicare and then kneecapping all the old folks in the store. Does this make me a bad person?
mai naem mobile
I don’t give a shit about King v. Burwell. If you are too stupid to realize Kynnect is O-care partly because of the soshulistmusleemy black man in the WH you fucking deserve to lose your healthcare. Same goes for the stoners, college students and latinos who didn’t get their shiny bejewelled unicorn. Fuck you.
Betty Cracker
@mai naem mobile: A rich hillbilly is a REPUBLICAN? Say it ain’t so!
@mai naem mobile: Well, except that people will probably literally die because of it, many of whom didn’t vote for the idiots who are trying to dismantle the ACA, including children. If it wasn’t for that, I’d be on the FUCK YOU train too. I can afford private insurance. No skin off my personal ass if the law goes down.
sparrow
@mai naem mobile: Yeah, I know it’s easy to fall into the rage trap, but you are seriously yelling FUCK YOU at lots of hispanics, women, and yes, potheads, that TOTALLY DID TOO vote for the dems but live in a craphole state full of racists.
Matt McIrvin
It’s not just deep-red states that would be affected: it’s New Jersey, Maine, Pennsylvania, Virginia, a bunch of others. In several, their worst sin was basically electing a Republican governor, which seems to be something that can happen anywhere.
Matt McIrvin
…And, basically, the aim here is to cause a sufficiently large national disaster that people will be clamoring all the harder to have the ACA repealed entirely.
RSR
from David Dayen:
(https://twitter.com/ddayen)
The Other Chuck
Guess we should be putting the single payer bill back on the ballot in CA after all. At this point, I’m thinking the rest of the country can go fuck itself, because that’s what they voted for.
Matt McIrvin
@Betty Cracker:
Well, except that that doesn’t last forever either. I’m thankful the Massachusetts/ACA exchange exists because I know there will, someday, once again come a time when I’m unemployed and too young for Medicare, and it could save me a lot of money over COBRA (even if I don’t qualify for subsidies, and if my wife is unemployed too, I very possibly could).
The Americans who are most vehemently opposed to the ACA either are old enough for Medicare, or they just don’t believe any of the above. They probably know they could be in need of such a thing, but they’ve been propagandized into believing the ACA won’t give it to them, that it’s just for somebody other than them. Kind of like many white Americans seem to believe there is special welfare just for black people.
(And, of course, there are the ones who are actually on an ACA exchange plan but don’t believe it is an ACA plan.)
Matt McIrvin
@Howard Beale IV: The Cato Institute has also been telling anyone who will listen that Romneycare has been a failure and a disaster in Massachusetts. What I tell you three times is true, I guess.