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You are here: Home / Past Elections / Election 2016 / Wednesday Morning Open Thread

Wednesday Morning Open Thread

by Anne Laurie|  June 10, 20155:35 am| 135 Comments

This post is in: Election 2016, Open Threads, Republican Stupidity, World's Best Healthcare (If You Can Afford It)

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Voldemort is polling better than many Republican presidential candidates http://t.co/yRDqJn3pDb

— Chris Blattman (@cblatts) June 9, 2015

To be fair, Voldemort has a longer track record than most of the GOP field. https://t.co/yXD4zuTnEv

— Daniel Drezner (@dandrezner) June 9, 2015

Dana Milbank, at the Washington Post, on (what he perceives as) the latest eleven-dimensional chess game:

President Obama uttered more than 3,600 words on the stage of Washington’s Marriott Wardman Park ballroom on Tuesday, but his message could be summed up in three: You wouldn’t dare.

He was speaking not to the hundreds of hospital administrators assembled for the Catholic Health Association’s conference but to five men not in the room: the conservative justices of the Supreme Court, who in the next 21 days will declare whether they are invalidating the most far-reaching legislation in at least a generation because of one vague clause tucked in its 2,000 pages.

Obama’s appeal to the justices, devotees of judicial modesty all: Do they really wish to cause the massive societal upheaval that would come from killing a law that is now a routine part of American life?

“Five years in, what we are talking about is no longer just a law. It’s no longer just a theory. It isn’t even just about the Affordable Care Act or Obamacare,” he said. “This is now part of the fabric of how we care for one another. This is health care in America.”…

…[I]t’s difficult to imagine the Supreme Court justices taking away health coverage for 6 million or 7 million Americans, causing costs to skyrocket for millions of others, and likely plunging the entire American health-care system into chaos. That’s not just judicial activism — it would be a judicially induced cataclysm…

As a devout Cynic, I think it’s a question of whether Chief Justice Roberts chooses to listen to the GOP robber barons who don’t want the current (comparatively) business-friendly ACA overturned, or his fellows on the Supreme Court (and/or Opus Dei) who get a deeply personal pleasure from seeing other people suffer. Which is more powerful, lucre or lust?
***********
Apart from contemplating the despair of vast wickedness, what’s on the agenda for the day?

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Reader Interactions

135Comments

  1. 1.

    Mustang Bobby

    June 10, 2015 at 6:02 am

    I don’t know about Chief Justice Roberts, but I can certainly see Scalia turning it over and maniacally giggling as he does it.

    ETA: What Booman said:

    It’s the stupidest fucking lawsuit in the history of the universe. It’s so stupid that, if the conservatives on the Court rule in favor of the plaintiffs, then there’s just no point in ever pretending that this is a serious country again.

  2. 2.

    dmsilev

    June 10, 2015 at 6:14 am

    You’ll recall that Voldemort killed Harry Potter’s parents, fed his enemies to a giant snake, and tortured and killed muggles just for fun. But he’s still polling better than Mike Huckabee, Ted Cruz, Jeb Bush, Rick Santorum, Chris Christie and Donald Trump.

    Impressive. I was also impressed to see that Trump had an approval rating of 15 percent. We may have to rethink the Crazification Threshold.

  3. 3.

    geg6

    June 10, 2015 at 6:18 am

    AL, I’m going to email you some Lovey pics since Cole can’t seem to post any of the ones I’ve sent him. Seeing Thurston’s pic and how big he is and how different he looks makes me think people might be curious about how Lovey is faring.

  4. 4.

    Schlemazel

    June 10, 2015 at 6:19 am

    @Mustang Bobby:
    It’s not like they have not shown themselves to be totally unmoored from reality. Remember Alito shaking his head & disagreeing when Obama said Citizens United would damage elections? The 5 mental pygmies are there not for their legal skill or rational demeanor, they’re there because they’re ideologues who can be counted on to rule in the way the Masters want. The damage they have done will echo for generations.

  5. 5.

    Baud

    June 10, 2015 at 6:21 am

    @Mustang Bobby:

    And even if we win, it won’t be unanimous.

  6. 6.

    Mustang Bobby

    June 10, 2015 at 6:31 am

    @Schlemazel: The ruling from the 5th Circuit on the Texas abortion law yesterday is the tee-up for them to say “Oh, yeah, about Roe v. Wade; what’s up with that shit?”

  7. 7.

    Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism

    June 10, 2015 at 6:41 am

    Something a little more cheerful: My Parking Sensors Failed: Another CarMax Warranty Update

    Involves both cars and cute dogs.

  8. 8.

    JPL

    June 10, 2015 at 6:42 am

    @geg6: That would be great. How is she doing?

  9. 9.

    OzarkHillbilly

    June 10, 2015 at 6:46 am

    the GOP robber barons who don’t want the current (comparatively) business-friendly ACA overturned,

    This… I foresee a day when we are all on the HC exchanges. What business man wouldn’t want to get rid of the headache that is healthcare for his employees.

  10. 10.

    JPL

    June 10, 2015 at 6:51 am

    If the court overturns the health care law, how likely is it that the same far right wing extremists will look at other laws, for context errors?

  11. 11.

    Kay

    June 10, 2015 at 6:51 am

    @Schlemazel:

    Remember Alito shaking his head & disagreeing when Obama said Citizens United would damage elections?

    Alito might genuinely believe that the playing field is level as far as money in campaigns. A lot of conservatves do. They say ridiculous things – they are, for example, completely convinced that environmental defense groups are exactly as powerful as business interests that fight environmental regs. Some of them actually turn the “greed” charge around- “professional” environmentalists (lawyers, etc) are getting paid so therefore it’s just the battle of the twin titans- Big Business versus Big Environment.

    The only way you could convince them was if every advocate for every liberal cause worked completely for free- 100% volunteers. One dollar changes hands and it’s “both sides” even if it’s 1000-1, business/environmental groups.

  12. 12.

    BruceFromOhio

    June 10, 2015 at 6:51 am

    Which is more powerful, lucre or lust?

    Cleek’s Law demands the latter. Even the robber barons are going to have to come to grips with the wanton, simpering idiocy the same two-bit soulless ratfucking criminals have repeatedly loosed on the land.

  13. 13.

    Baud

    June 10, 2015 at 6:54 am

    @BruceFromOhio:

    If there were nine GOP justices, that would be right. But we only need one to sympathize with industry over wingnuts to win here.

  14. 14.

    OzarkHillbilly

    June 10, 2015 at 6:56 am

    @JPL: What makes them think we won’t do the same to their favorite laws? I’m quite sure there is a muddled word or 2 in the Bush tax cuts.

  15. 15.

    OzarkHillbilly

    June 10, 2015 at 6:59 am

    @Mustang Bobby: Out of Georgia:

    Woman charged with murder after allegedly taking abortion pills in US

    The Dougherty district attorney, Greg Edwards, said on Tuesday he was reviewing the case, but “as of right now she’s still charged”.

    Lynn Paltrow, an attorney and executive director of National Advocates for Pregnant Women, said prosecuting Jones would seem to be at odds with Georgia case law. She noted state law explicitly prohibited prosecuting women for foeticide involving their own pregnancies.

  16. 16.

    Schlemazel

    June 10, 2015 at 6:59 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:
    Because the tiny 5 get to decide. If the ump is bought off you know your appeals will succeed the the other guys will fall on deaf ears.

  17. 17.

    Schlemazel

    June 10, 2015 at 7:02 am

    @Kay:
    He might believe it, nobody ever accused any of those 5 of being bright.

    But its a debate reasonable people have had about GOP pols for 4 years now: That stupid or that crooked?

  18. 18.

    OzarkHillbilly

    June 10, 2015 at 7:13 am

    @Schlemazel: The con will show when they say this decision does not set precedent.

  19. 19.

    Kay

    June 10, 2015 at 7:17 am

    @Schlemazel:

    One of the most depressing things about the Supreme Court to me was finding out they often seem to give short shrift to determining what are facts and what are opinions.

    There’s a lot of random bloviating and opinionating going on, in my opinion, and that’s okay in the political realm but I expect more rigor from judges, especially these judges who are regularly held up as the Best and Brightest. If one more person tells me how brilliant they are I may start screaming.

    Alito mouthed “not true”. “True” is a very definitive word. What isn’t true? That Citizens will “open the floodgates”? How could he possibly know that’s not true? He has no earthly idea what will happen as a result of Citizens. No one does.

  20. 20.

    OzarkHillbilly

    June 10, 2015 at 7:25 am

    @Kay:

    He has no earthly idea what will happen as a result of Citizens. No one does.

    But we all have some pretty strong clues by now.

  21. 21.

    Sherparick

    June 10, 2015 at 7:35 am

    I think it depends somewhat on how deeply Kennedy and Roberts (and their clerks) are in the “Fox News Bubble” (as opposed to Scalia, Thomas, and Roberts whose entire information world is Faux News, Rush, WorldNetDaily, Breitbart, “First Things” (for the orthodox Christian who really loves the visions of hell), and Federalist Society News letters). There had to be 4 votes on the court willing to do “Moops invaded Spain” Affordable Care Act defenestration to yank the this case out of the 4th Circuit, with the belief that they had the fifth vote in their pocket. The question arises is whether Roberts and Kennedy may have gotten cold feet about a decision that will be seen as nakedly political.

    I don’t know what the political consequences will be over the next few election cycles. On the one hand, it could fire up the Democratic base and perhaps cause some white working class folks to wonder if getting their economic interests constantly gored by the powers that be is worth sustaining their privileges as white people (and as McKinney, Texas last weekend illustrates, those privileges are very tangible – as long as one does not go hippie and stick up for Blacks and Browns, you don’t have to worry about being hogged tied and wrestled to ground just because.”)

    On the other hand, the U.S. could become more and more like Texas, where only 25% voting age adults turn out to vote and the majority of those people are lunatics. Why? Because most working class adults, white, Black, and Brown, in Texas figure that voting will not make a difference and that they just have to adapt to a system designed to ground them to dust. They are now to busy with day to day survival not to have much hope in world run by the Rick Perry’s, Greg Abbott’s, Ted Cruz’s, and John Coryn’s of the world. And from the stand point of the Texas elite, except for the slight uptick in their Federal taxes under Obama, things have never been better as far as their wealth and increasing feudal power over their employees is concern. Voiding the Affordable Care, the one law that has made life somewhat easier and uncertain for working people and gave their employer one less club to hold over their heads, will tell the same folks in the rest of the country that nothing good can come from Government and voting is a waste of time (they forget, as Scott Walker has shown in Wisconsin, Rick Scott has in Florida, the Sam Brownback in Kansas, and Bobbie Jindal in Louisiana, that Republicans can always make it worse for them. (Again, for all the Single Payer advocates out there who have despised Obamacare, please tell me your magic wand that will get me 218 votes in the House of Representatives and 60 votes in the Senate for the Canadian System or the NHS.)

  22. 22.

    kindness

    June 10, 2015 at 7:36 am

    I don’t think it’s the joy in seeing other suffer that motivates the sick bastards. I think it’s a more self centered motive.

    Those against the ACA don’t want others to have what they have, even if it means taking something away from those others that those others pay for themselves. It’s a false pride/superiority thing. It allows them to feel as if they are ‘better’. The fact that it is the ‘superior better’ people chucking those others into a ditch isn’t the exciting part. The excitement is the being superior part. No different from a big kid bullying a smaller one.

    Children in adult bodies. It explains alot about the Teahaddist psychie.

  23. 23.

    Botsplainer

    June 10, 2015 at 7:42 am

    As lousy as Congress and some Presidents have been, aside from the Warren Court, the Supreme Court has historically been our worst, most retrograde institution.

  24. 24.

    Sherparick

    June 10, 2015 at 7:44 am

    @dmsilev: I think most Republicans find these to be Voldemort’s virtues (after all Harry’s parents were both hippies and in a sorta of union “The Order of the Phoenix,” so bashing and crushing hippies and unions is all good.

  25. 25.

    Kay

    June 10, 2015 at 7:46 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    I think there’s an idea of “institutional credibility” that the Supreme Court has and should protect. It isn’t an endless grant, their credibility, and the individual justices don’t earn it prior to being appointing. It comes with the institution. It’s a gift.

    They could blow thru that gift they didn’t earn. That could happen. If it does happen it will very difficult to earn it back.

  26. 26.

    satby

    June 10, 2015 at 7:55 am

    @Mustang Bobby: I read that last night and Martin is exactly correct; the trouble is I am afraid we already have passed the “not a serious country” point a while ago.

  27. 27.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    June 10, 2015 at 7:57 am

    @Mustang Bobby: BooMan makes a good case, and maybe he’ll be right. But Roberts has shown that he’s willing to throw stare decisis in the trash whenever he feels like it. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he writes the opinion and throws a few monkey wrenches and footnotes in the decision to open the door to allowing him to make even more changes to settled law in the future. (To be sure, sometimes footnotes are very important…)

    The case should have never been granted and the decision should be obvious, but we can’t count on that given this Court’s history. :-(

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  28. 28.

    satby

    June 10, 2015 at 8:00 am

    @Kay: They make the equivalence argument, but they know it’s not equal and that situation favors them. That’s why they make it. Do they believe it? Not any more deeply than they “believe” other things that suit them. If the progressive side started to have a lopsided advantage in funding that belief would change in a heartbeat.

  29. 29.

    OzarkHillbilly

    June 10, 2015 at 8:00 am

    @Kay: Scalia blew thru that gift a long time ago.

  30. 30.

    Tsukune

    June 10, 2015 at 8:03 am

    @dmsilev: Maybe 12% of the crazies feel that the Donald is not pure enough to earn their approval.

  31. 31.

    satby

    June 10, 2015 at 8:09 am

    @I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: Wow, great article. Did not know that about footnote four and the Court.

  32. 32.

    Kay

    June 10, 2015 at 8:15 am

    @satby:

    I think so too, but I hear it all the time. I don’t know if you know this but there’s all kinds of conspiracy theories among farmers regarding the Humane Society. There’s a grain of truth there- the Humane Society DOES lobby on humane treatment of ag animals, but to me it’s like “really? you think the poor defenseless agricultural industry will be taken down by the Humane Society?” I mean, Jesus Christ. The US Senate is practically an institutional guarantee of power by the ag industry.

    I have a friend who calls this “volunteer lobbying”. She gets passionate defenses of Wal Mart from people and she’s thinking “Wal Mart can probably protect themselves but if you want to volunteer…”

  33. 33.

    debbie

    June 10, 2015 at 8:18 am

    @JPL:

    If the court overturns the health care law, how likely is it that the same far right wing extremists will look at other laws, for context errors?

    Because of course no Republican legislation has ever had context errors? (Err, Patriot Act, Medicare Part D, and on?)

    This better not go badly.

  34. 34.

    JPL

    June 10, 2015 at 8:22 am

    @debbie: Just like Bush/Gore they will issue a narrow ruling, but this time, it will pertain to laws passed by democrats.

  35. 35.

    Hillary Rettig

    June 10, 2015 at 8:27 am

    I posted this last week, but on the tail end of an open thread, so I suspect a lot of people didn’t see it: John Scalzi was kind enough to let me interview him on his time management and career management strategies. He also answered questions about how he balances his (fantastic) politics and political activism with his public persona, and how he manages to do so much great social media on top of everything else. His answers were great and very substantial! I think some BJers would be interested, so here’s the link:

    http://www.hillaryrettig.com/2015/06/01/exclusive-john-scalzis-time-management-and-career-tips/

  36. 36.

    Baud

    June 10, 2015 at 8:30 am

    @debbie:
    @debbie:

    It’s an issue in almost every major statute. The analysis in this case will be a one-shot deal if they rule against Obamacare.

  37. 37.

    debbie

    June 10, 2015 at 8:32 am

    @JPL:

    Cowards. The bench needs a Judge Roy Bean.

  38. 38.

    satby

    June 10, 2015 at 8:33 am

    @Hillary Rettig: I did see that, and it was great! Thanks for doing that.

  39. 39.

    Kathleen

    June 10, 2015 at 8:35 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: The Right To Life will demand the death penalty.

  40. 40.

    satby

    June 10, 2015 at 8:36 am

    @Kay: How much of that is just resentment that they might have to change their ways?
    It’s always easier to blame nefarious plots than to just admit you’re an asshole that doesn’t want to change. Plus bonus victimization!!

  41. 41.

    debbie

    June 10, 2015 at 8:38 am

    @Baud:

    If so, I hope there’s a minority opinion which points that out.

  42. 42.

    Kathleen

    June 10, 2015 at 8:38 am

    @kindness: Indeed. Lord of the Flies level children. I totally agree with you.

  43. 43.

    Baud

    June 10, 2015 at 8:40 am

    @debbie:

    I’m sure. The Dem justices are very good.

  44. 44.

    Valdivia

    June 10, 2015 at 8:48 am

    I think it’s important to remember that the King lawsuit does *not* overturn the ACA. Though we have no idea what the consequences of a decision for the plaintiffs would have for the States not involved, the lawsuit is not about the constitutionality of the law, it’s narrow and focused on subsidies for the states that did not establish their own exchanges. To keep saying that King undoes all of the ACA is incorrect.
    /I know, I keep beating this dead horse.

    ETA: What a ruling for the plaintiffs in King leaves intact in the ACA

  45. 45.

    Kay

    June 10, 2015 at 8:49 am

    @satby:

    It’s heating up right now because of Lake Erie water. The truth is ag run-off is killing the lake and they aren’t affected by it personally because they drink ground water. They’re going to be regulated because they didn’t take care of it voluntarily and lots and lots of people rely on that water. The whining is already reaching a fever pitch. I have zero sympathy. They KNOW how to mitigate this damage with better practice. They chose not to.

  46. 46.

    raven

    June 10, 2015 at 8:49 am

    Goddamn it. My neighbor’s big sweet dog has been struggling and he just knocked on the door for me to help load the big fella in his truck to bury him. He died in his sleep last night. Shit.

  47. 47.

    Chris

    June 10, 2015 at 8:56 am

    @Mustang Bobby:

    What Booman says – was there ever any doubt, at least since 2000?

  48. 48.

    Chris

    June 10, 2015 at 8:59 am

    @kindness:

    I was gonna disagree with your first paragraph, but after reading the rest… this.

  49. 49.

    Bobby Thomson

    June 10, 2015 at 9:00 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    What makes them think we won’t do the same to their favorite laws?

    Math.

    4 < 5.

  50. 50.

    mainmata

    June 10, 2015 at 9:00 am

    The five right-wingers on the SCOTUS may be many things but “devotees of judicial modesty” is not one of them. That said, I predict that Roberts doesn’t want to leave a legacy as a completely irresponsible hack and will elect to stay out of this artificial legislative issue. The other four conservatives are the harpies of havoc and will gladly vote to overturn Obamacare.

  51. 51.

    satby

    June 10, 2015 at 9:02 am

    @raven: Aww, that’s too bad. But at least the big guy slipped away on his own. I send your neighbor my sympathy.

  52. 52.

    ranchandsyrup

    June 10, 2015 at 9:02 am

    Traveling home with the kids after a nice vacation. Caught a 35 lb wahoo. :)

  53. 53.

    geg6

    June 10, 2015 at 9:03 am

    @JPL:

    She’s a handful. But so cute and funny and full of spirit that you can’t help but laugh most of the time when she’s been bad. She and Koda are just so hilarious together. This morning, they were tearing through the house, chasing each other at top speed. Lovey can run like the wind! She’s way faster than Koda.

  54. 54.

    Bobby Thomson

    June 10, 2015 at 9:05 am

    @Kay:

    I think there’s an idea of “institutional credibility” that the Supreme Court has and should protect. It isn’t an endless grant, their credibility, and the individual justices don’t earn it prior to being appointing. It comes with the institution. It’s a gift.

    They could blow thru that gift they didn’t earn. That could happen. If it does happen it will very difficult to earn it back.

    Like that didn’t already happen with Shelby County. Those mother fuckers are racist hacks and deserve to be spat upon in the streets.

    Protip: the Chewbacca defense is not a tool for predicting SCOTUS decisions.

  55. 55.

    raven

    June 10, 2015 at 9:06 am

    @ranchandsyrup: Steel leader?

  56. 56.

    ranchandsyrup

    June 10, 2015 at 9:07 am

    @raven: yup. My wife caught a 30 lb one on a cedar plug. Hope all is well with you raven.

  57. 57.

    MomSense

    June 10, 2015 at 9:14 am

    Tonight is the science fair and I am weaving in the ends on my cockroach hat to the delight of my knitting friends who are laughing at me. I couldn’t find any lenses to simulate how cockroaches see but my son’s teacher has decided to try and find some she can make into glasses for future lessons.

    Oh and I dropped some comment a week or so ago when we were looking through the movie selection about “period films”. I found out last night when I overheard my son talking to his science project partner that he had interpreted that in a completely different way and thought it was a crazy and disgusting idea to make movies about that.

    Tomorrow is the pre-puberty film at his school and mandated parent discussion. I’ll let you know how that goes.

    Can’t believe I missed Thurston and 80s music last night. Thurston is huge now. We need Lovey pics!!!

  58. 58.

    thalarctos (not the other one)

    June 10, 2015 at 9:14 am

    Of course Voldemort is polling well among Republicans. They’re tired of settling for the lesser evil.

    I suspect Cthulhu would poll even better.

  59. 59.

    Belafon

    June 10, 2015 at 9:14 am

    While I hope five keep the subsidies intact, it’s not like the SCOTUS has never wiped entire laws out because SOCIALISM. The Supreme Court that FDR had to deal with did this a lot.

  60. 60.

    raven

    June 10, 2015 at 9:18 am

    @ranchandsyrup: Not bad here. I skelatonized the skull of the redfish I caught a couple of weeks back. It took three days on a fireant mound as opposed to 3 months with the dermisted beetles.

  61. 61.

    ranchandsyrup

    June 10, 2015 at 9:20 am

    @raven: nice! I’ll check yer pics.

  62. 62.

    Chris

    June 10, 2015 at 9:25 am

    @Belafon:

    I always learned growing up that FDR’s attempt to pack the court was overreach, hubris, arrogance, megalomania, proof that even the best presidents can lose their heads sometimes, etc.

    After growing up… just in time for Great Recession… and learning some more about the context, I have far more sympathy for FDR. Knowing that the survival of his New Deal was on the line, that several programs had already been destroyed by the Court, just how badly the New Deal was needed, and how hard it is to get *anything* of that kind through, I can’t really condemn him for doing what he did. Especially since the SC did, in fact, calm the fuck down, suggesting that they got the message.

    Yeah, it stopped the New Deal’s momentum in its tracks, but, he must have thought, how much worse would it have been if they’d just tossed it all out altogether?

  63. 63.

    Belafon

    June 10, 2015 at 9:29 am

    @Kay:

    If it does happen it will very difficult to earn it back.

    Would they get fewer cases to decide if they blow this one? How would destroying subsidies really affect them? What if they don’t care about credibility?

  64. 64.

    JPL

    June 10, 2015 at 9:29 am

    Steve Benen has a link at Maddowblog, to the ad that upset Franklin Graham so much.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxDsx8HfXEk

    Have a hanky

  65. 65.

    japa21

    June 10, 2015 at 9:33 am

    The argument that this case cannot and will not destroy the ACA is predicated on the assumption that the ruling would confine itself to the specific argument made by the plaintiff. And for a normal court, any decision would do just that.

    However, this court is known for going beyond the specifics of the case, which is beyond the mandate of any court. United is a perfect example of this. They took one small point and expanded their decision to cover something far bigger than the specifics of the case, an action which was almost unprecedented in the history of the Supreme Court.

  66. 66.

    scav

    June 10, 2015 at 9:34 am

    @raven: Ok early morning bleary eyes, but I read ” I skelatonized the skull of the radish” and thought a) he’s at it again and only then, how’d he manage to find the skull?

  67. 67.

    Elizabelle

    June 10, 2015 at 9:42 am

    @raven: Very sorry to hear that. Dying in his sleep is not a bad end for a beloved pet.

  68. 68.

    raven

    June 10, 2015 at 9:43 am

    @scav: I caught it, filet’d it, and froze the head. This is the second one I’ve done and I just wanted to see how fire ants worked in comparison to the expensive and time consuming dermisted beetle method. This was the first try, it’s on my mantle now.

  69. 69.

    raven

    June 10, 2015 at 9:45 am

    @Elizabelle: I know, the big dude had been struggling for a week or so and this was probably merciful. I don’t know they guy all that well but he does know I’m a dog lover and felt comfortable asking for help. I didn’t expect to cry like a baby.

  70. 70.

    MomSense

    June 10, 2015 at 9:49 am

    This is a letter that Debra wrote to President Obama about how the ACA helped her.

    https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2015/06/09/read-original-letter-written-pennsylvania-woman-whose-story-president-told-today

  71. 71.

    Belafon

    June 10, 2015 at 9:51 am

    @JPL: I can’t watch Youtube at work, but is that the Wells Fargo commercial with the two women adopting the deaf girl: “We’re your new mommies”? I love that commercial, and I hope it gives Graham a heart attack.

  72. 72.

    rikyrah

    June 10, 2015 at 9:51 am

    Jeb’s doing the European tour too?
    BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA

    ………………………….

    Jeb Bush’s anti-Putin speech in Berlin is a strategic and political blunder
    Updated by Max Fisher on June 9, 2015, 8:40 a.m. ET @Max_Fisher [email protected]

    I happened to arrive in Berlin a few days before Jeb Bush, who is visiting the German capital today for a big anti-Putin speech. The governor did not see fit to recruit me into his advance team. But if he had, I would’ve called the home office to strongly urge that he cancel, for the good of both his political campaign and American strategic interests in Europe.

    Having Jeb Bush come to Berlin to argue on behalf of US foreign policy in Europe is a bit like sending Edward Snowden to give a speech on NSA reform to the Republican National Committee. Bush has come up in nearly every conversation I’ve had here since arriving, and always with a warning: that skepticism of the US is already high here, that the German public’s support of tough policies toward Russia is tenuous, and that the mere sight of a Bush makes Germans want to run in the opposite direction of US foreign policy.

    ……………

    Jeb Bush is extremely unpopular in Germany, where only 7 percent see him in a positive light, according to a recent YouGov poll, with 27 percent negative. His last name is deeply intertwined with a popular opposition to US foreign policy that, to my surprise, Germans themselves have frequently characterized to me as “anti-Americanism.” When Germans express skepticism toward Merkel’s hardline policies on Russia and Ukraine, they often do so by suggesting those policies are being pushed by the Americans, and raising the much-loathed 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq. The very worst person to convince them to stay the course on Russia, then, is anyone named Bush.

    http://www.vox.com/2015/6/9/8750597/jeb-bush-berlin

  73. 73.

    Hillary Rettig

    June 10, 2015 at 9:51 am

    Also, today is a big day in news headlines. See:

    http://www.sbnation.com/lookit/2015/6/8/8748933/pat-venditte-switch-pitcher-newspaper-headline-amphibious-pitcher

    and

    http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/10/business/media/vincent-musetto-74-author-of-headless-headline-of-ageless-fame.html

  74. 74.

    Hillary Rettig

    June 10, 2015 at 9:52 am

    Satby – thank you!

  75. 75.

    Steeplejack

    June 10, 2015 at 9:56 am

    @raven:

    Wanted to respond to your comment from Saturday morning about Cape May and the New Jersey shore. Couldn’t do it then because I had to hit the road at 6:30 a.m.

    My view of Wildwood and North Wildwood was mostly limited to the White Caps Motel and environs—where I will not be staying again, incidentally, because when I got up Saturday morning I discovered no hot water in the bathroom. I can deal with roughing it when I travel, but I really like a hot shower to start the day—especially when I’m expecting it! Stuck my head under the cold water to shampoo my hair, then sort of washed myself cowboy style with a washcloth. Ugh.

    I did drive through the downtown area(s) Friday night to get to Cape May, where I took my friend to her (much nicer) hotel and we had dinner at the 410 Bank Street restaurant. Very good.

    Cape May does have a boardwalk, and I think Wildwood/North Wildwood does too, although I didn’t get to check them out. So I don’t know about the state of things after Sandy. I did see a lot of signs pointing to beachside attractions.

    I should have stayed at the Star Lux in Wildwood. Very retro cool. Passed that on the way back to my place after dinner. Actually, there were a lot of retro cool hotels in Wildwood. I’m kicking myself for not stopping and taking some pictures of the neon signs, but I was just too tired after driving all day.

    Anyway, good road trip, and I wouldn’t mind going back there sometime—just not in the middle of the high season. We had dinner with the costume designer for my friend’s play, who lives in Cape May most of the year, and she said it’s a madhouse from July 1 to Labor Day.

    Cape May is actually pretty close to my brother’s beach house in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, in a slightly weird way. There’s a ferry that goes from Lewes, a little town north of Rehoboth Beach, to Cape May and back. Takes about an hour and 15 minutes one way. Couldn’t come back that way this time because I had to drop my friend in Philadelphia. That would have been interesting.

  76. 76.

    Matt McIrvin

    June 10, 2015 at 9:57 am

    @Kay: Better: they believe that professional climate scientists are greedy liars who are making up a climate catastrophe so they can live high on the hog with that sweet, sweet research funding.

  77. 77.

    scav

    June 10, 2015 at 10:03 am

    @raven: I followed along on the epic first (or second?) attempt, but really, does the same technique work on radishes? I’m telling you, only a few sips into first coffee brain. But now I so want a radish skull over the fireplace mantlepiece.

  78. 78.

    japa21

    June 10, 2015 at 10:04 am

    @Belafon: I love that ad as well. Too bad I have such negative feelings about Wells Fargo.

  79. 79.

    WereBear

    June 10, 2015 at 10:04 am

    @Hillary Rettig: Thanks! He’s a wonderful person AND writer, so this was a delight.

  80. 80.

    raven

    June 10, 2015 at 10:05 am

    @Steeplejack: Thanks! Sounds cool.

  81. 81.

    raven

    June 10, 2015 at 10:06 am

    @scav: If there is a solid structure I think it would. Do you have fireants?

  82. 82.

    Calouste

    June 10, 2015 at 10:11 am

    @Chris:The rest of the world had definitely caught on by 2004:

    http://politicalhumor.about.com/library/images/blbushdumbpeople.htm

  83. 83.

    Valdivia

    June 10, 2015 at 10:11 am

    @MomSense: Oh good luck with the puberty talk. We are here waiting to hear how it goes! :)

  84. 84.

    Cervantes

    June 10, 2015 at 10:15 am

    @Chris:

    After growing up… just in time for Great Recession… and learning some more about the context, I have far more sympathy for FDR. Knowing that the survival of his New Deal was on the line, that several programs had already been destroyed by the Court, just how badly the New Deal was needed, and how hard it is to get *anything* of that kind through, I can’t really condemn him for doing what he did. Especially since the SC did, in fact, calm the fuck down, suggesting that they got the message.

    Yes, that was … an extremely difficult episode in an extremely difficult time.

    Here is a key passage from FDR’s second inaugural address (1937):

    I see a great nation, upon a great continent, blessed with a great wealth of natural resources. Its hundred and thirty million people are at peace among themselves; they are making their country a good neighbor among the nations. I see a United States which can demonstrate that, under democratic methods of government, national wealth can be translated into a spreading volume of human comforts hitherto unknown, and the lowest standard of living can be raised far above the level of mere subsistence.

    But here is the challenge to our democracy: In this nation I see tens of millions of its citizens, a substantial part of its whole population, who at this very moment are denied the greater part of what the very lowest standards of today call the necessities of life.

    I see millions of families trying to live on incomes so meager that the pall of family disaster hangs over them day by day.

    I see millions whose daily lives in city and on farm continue under conditions labeled indecent by a so-called polite society half a century ago.

    I see millions denied education, recreation, and the opportunity to better their lot and the lot of their children.

    I see millions lacking the means to buy the products of farm and factory and by their poverty denying work and productiveness to many other millions.

    I see one-third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished.

    It is not in despair that I paint you that picture. I paint it for you in hope, because the Nation, seeing and understanding the injustice in it, proposes to paint it out.

    When FDR spoke these words, the years-in-the-making plan to re-structure (“pack”) the federal courts was already firm in his mind. A few weeks later he announced it.

    @Botsplainer:

    As lousy as Congress and some Presidents have been, aside from the Warren Court, the Supreme Court has historically been our worst, most retrograde institution.

    I’m glad you excepted the Warren Court. That it was exceptional was, to say the least, obvious even at the time.

  85. 85.

    Chris

    June 10, 2015 at 10:15 am

    @rikyrah:

    The cynic in me says this is what he wants; to rile up the limp-wristed Euro girly men for the benefit of his superiors and contrast his own hard nosed badassness.

    (After all, thumbing our nose at the world was almost as much the point of the Iraq War as anything that happened in Iraq. From the kind of propaganda that was being put up in 2002/2003, you could be forgiven for thinking that France and not Iraq was who we were going to war with).

  86. 86.

    scav

    June 10, 2015 at 10:16 am

    @raven: Will have to go check the garden. Highly sensitive, artistically motivated radish friendly fire-ants. On the balcony. I may be a while.

  87. 87.

    rikyrah

    June 10, 2015 at 10:17 am

    OT: Back to the debate about the continued coddling of the White Working Class.

    When people vote against their own self-interest, there comes a time when they should not be coddled anymore.

    IF they vote this mofo Bevin in and he takes away their health insurance…no better for them. I have not one ounce of pity for them.

    ……………………….

    Kentucky election could blot an Obamacare bright spot

    Matt Bevin has made eliminating the state’s Obamacare programs a central plank of his platform.
    6/9/15 6:48 PM EDT

    excerpt:
    Gallup polling shows Kentucky saw the second biggest drop in its uninsured rate in the country, behind only Arkansas.

    Yet, Republican gubernatorial nominee Matt Bevin, a tea party favorite who narrowly won a brutal primary last month and could run a competitive general election race, has made eliminating the state’s Obamacare programs — and sharply curtailing the ranks of the newly insured — a central plank of his platform. If he wins this November, more than half a million people who got covered through the exchange or an Obamacare-proscribed expansion of Medicaid could find themselves in health care limbo.

    http://www.politico.com/story/2015/06/kentucky-election-could-blot-an-obamacare-bright-spot-118794.html#ixzz3cfLVNrn2

  88. 88.

    Steeplejack

    June 10, 2015 at 10:17 am

    @raven:

    Forgot to add that the costume designer said her husband did a lot of surf fishing around there and had recently caught some nice bluefish.

  89. 89.

    PurpleGirl

    June 10, 2015 at 10:18 am

    On the planning board… more tossing out of miscellaneous paper and some dead/dying appliances. After double checking the other day, I tossed out a dead microwave and toast oven Today will be a dead fan and radio. Tomorrow will an old keyboard at the ecycling event being held at my complex. It feels good to get rid of stuff.

  90. 90.

    Elizabelle

    June 10, 2015 at 10:20 am

    @MomSense: Period films. LOL.

  91. 91.

    raven

    June 10, 2015 at 10:20 am

    @Steeplejack: They were running pretty well in North Carolina three weeks ago so that would make sense. I made a stock from the red and used the bluefish filets to make a decent cippino!

  92. 92.

    Chris

    June 10, 2015 at 10:21 am

    @Chris:

    *For the benefit of his supporters.

  93. 93.

    Bobby Thomson

    June 10, 2015 at 10:22 am

    @Mustang Bobby: booman is incredibly naive. The horse died years after leaving the barn.

  94. 94.

    raven

    June 10, 2015 at 10:22 am

    @scav: If you have fireants you’d know it.

  95. 95.

    Valdivia

    June 10, 2015 at 10:24 am

    Like all of you I think our current SC is the worst we have had in a really really long time. And they may well rule for the plaintiffs in King. But the idea that they would go outside the issue presented to them and declare ACA completely unconstitutional is really not in the realm of possibility. They may well decide that in some other case that the crazies will throw up to them, but not in this one.

  96. 96.

    JohnPM

    June 10, 2015 at 10:30 am

    @I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: I do not remember that footnote being discussed in my Con Law class in law school. Very informative, and much more coherent than “original intent.”

  97. 97.

    shortstop

    June 10, 2015 at 10:32 am

    @Kay: I don’t think they’d be convinced even then; their new argument would be that if the cause is worthwhile, you ought to be able to get a paying job doing it.

  98. 98.

    catclub

    June 10, 2015 at 10:33 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    What business man wouldn’t want to get rid of the headache that is healthcare for his employees.

    Tell me when GM comes out in favor of it. They have employees in Canada who have great health care that is not paid for by GM.
    But they were against Obamacare or anything that would expand general health care coverage, even though they have huge numbers of older middle aged retirees they were paying the healthcare of. This an owner-class solidarity issue, which is more important than money.

    [Did GM fob off healthcare onto the unions in the latest uproar ( 2008-9)?]

  99. 99.

    JPL

    June 10, 2015 at 10:35 am

    @Belafon: yes

  100. 100.

    MomSense

    June 10, 2015 at 10:35 am

    @rikyrah:

    I try to have sympathy because our media are so fucked up but the phone calls before last November’s election were so vile. When you vote to screw yourself and your family because of hatred of poor people and racist based spite, you do get exactly what you voted for.

    The thing is there seem to be just enough of this group to bring the rest of us down and it’s hard not to despair about that. Do I ever want to talk to those motherfuckers again? No.

  101. 101.

    catclub

    June 10, 2015 at 10:37 am

    @Valdivia:

    and declare ACA completely unconstitutional is really not in the realm of possibility.

    I think they rule 6-3 in favor of the administraion and the ACA.

    Nonetheless, I can imagine them ruling against, and then Roberts, via an equal dignitude of the states argument ( as used in the VRA strikedown) that not only are the federal subsidies in states with no exchanges out, but also the subsidies in the states that did set up their own exchanges. Because fairness.

  102. 102.

    JPL

    June 10, 2015 at 10:40 am

    @Valdivia: The narrower the marketplace, the higher the premiums. It might make it unaffordable which would accomplish the same thing.

  103. 103.

    Steeplejack

    June 10, 2015 at 10:40 am

    @Hillary Rettig:

    Thanks for that! Very interesting.

    ETA: By which I mean that I read the interview, not that I thought it was interesting that you posted a link to it. :-)

  104. 104.

    catclub

    June 10, 2015 at 10:41 am

    @raven:

    used the bluefish filets to make a decent cioppino!

    My favorite radio memory is John Ciardi (Good words to you) explaining the origination of the word ‘cioppino’.

  105. 105.

    Patricia Kayden

    June 10, 2015 at 10:42 am

    @rikyrah: And if people in Kentucky are dumb enough to vote for Bevin, I really don’t care about what happens next. Elections have consequences. I’m tired of idiots voting against their interests.

  106. 106.

    catclub

    June 10, 2015 at 10:44 am

    @rikyrah:

    IF they vote this mofo Bevin in and he takes away their health insurance…no better for them. I have not one ounce of pity for them.

    That is like blaming the poor people in Mississippi for how the rest of Mississippi votes. I disagree. And we both know how the poorest people in Mississippi vote. It ain’t Republican.

  107. 107.

    sharl

    June 10, 2015 at 10:45 am

    @geg6:

    THANK YOU for your service! geg6 = #Hero

  108. 108.

    Valdivia

    June 10, 2015 at 10:46 am

    @catclub: I think it is very likely that the case goes to the govt in 5-4 or 6-3 form. But: in case it does not, from everything that I have read I think that is impossible that they would invalidate *all* the subsidies because the argument here was about the *language of the statute* and what it allows the government to do. It would be like a voting id case being decided and then Roberts saying all states have to follow that law because of fairness. As horrid as they have been on voting rights, at no point have they extended the laws of one state to others, or used one lawsuit to impose voting id laws nationally. But I am not a legal expert so I will let those with the expertise correct me if I am wrong.

    This Court is horrible enough as it is, I don’t want to begin imagining scenarios where they start behaving like the cases brought to them are irrelevant and they can just rule on whatever the hell they feel like that is tangentially related (if this has already happened, then I need to go hide under a rock)

    @JPL: It might well be, as I said, the consequences of the decision could be destructive. My point is very modest: that we have to stop calling King a decision to make ACA unconstitutional because it doesn’t and we don’t know for a fact what will happen after the decision comes down.

    Also, too. A century of Latin American art is waiting for me to be written up as a lecture for my night class, so I will catch you all later.

  109. 109.

    Elizabelle

    June 10, 2015 at 10:47 am

    Public service announcement: DC area: Pender Animal Hospital near Fair Oaks Mall will take injured wildlife and turn them over to rehabbers. No charge, but you do have to sign a release and promise not to call to inquire on animal’s condition.

    Pender Animal Hospital: 703 591 3304
    (“exotics” line is 703 654 3100)

    4001 Legato Rd, Fairfax, VA 22033

    Unscheduled: gonna drive a rescued chipmunk (or ground squirrel?) to a local vet for transfer to a wildlife rehabber.

    Was attacked by my favorite neighborhood cat, who I love, but who is a menace to wildlife. He was over early to visit during coffee, and I could tell he was in the mood to kill something.

    Little animal is perky, and not bleeding, has been drinking water, but I know it has a puncture wound to the chest. Figured it could use some anti-infection help. It’s confined to a plastic bin and about to get its first road trip.

    Dumbass chipmunk. Kept running back toward the cat. Multiple times, before I could get over there.

  110. 110.

    catclub

    June 10, 2015 at 10:48 am

    @rikyrah: Also this: http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-06-10/jeb-bush-flunked-his-berlin-test

    Obama spoke to 200,000 in 2008.

    Bush spoke to 1000 businessmen, still didn’t win even them over.

  111. 111.

    Chris

    June 10, 2015 at 10:51 am

    @MomSense:

    I sympathize. It’s very hard for me to reach out to people over the sound of them wishing for me to die from lack of health insurance and lack of basic minimum wage, whether they’re screaming it or doing it in a calm, measured, “this’ll hurt me more than you” voice. Probably why I’m not in politics, or campaigning.

  112. 112.

    JPL

    June 10, 2015 at 10:57 am

    Recently, I read that one republican rep said he didn’t represent those on subsidies, so it’s not his problem. I can’t remember who it was but he obvious represents the I got mine crowd.

  113. 113.

    Citizen_X

    June 10, 2015 at 11:00 am

    @rikyrah: Eh, if Merkel doesn’t want to deal with Jeb! he should just give her a massage. She loves that.

  114. 114.

    Amir Khalid

    June 10, 2015 at 11:00 am

    @catclub:
    If we non-Americans had been able to vote for your President (crazy idea, I know) Gore would have beaten W in a landslide. I think when they run the international polls, Hillary will beat any Republican nominee by a similarly big margin.

  115. 115.

    Bobby Thomson

    June 10, 2015 at 11:01 am

    @Valdivia: because you’re being overly formalist. A bad result in King causes a death spiral that leads to nuking the ban on pre-existing conditions, at a minimum.

  116. 116.

    PurpleGirl

    June 10, 2015 at 11:08 am

    @raven: That’s so sad the dog has passed away. I’m the rest of BJ is with me to give him our condolences.

  117. 117.

    Amir Khalid

    June 10, 2015 at 11:09 am

    @Citizen_X:
    Dann sollte sie ihm eine Ohrfeige geben, und sagen: Das sollte ich deinem Bruder getan.

  118. 118.

    Dave C

    June 10, 2015 at 11:10 am

    I honestly don’t know how to process the idea that this lawsuit is even being heard by SCOTUS. I am cautiously optimistic that the ruling will go against the plaintiffs, but if it doesn’t, I don’t think I will ever regain hope for the future of our country.

  119. 119.

    John M. Burt

    June 10, 2015 at 11:10 am

    @Mustang Bobby: There really is something wrong with that man.

    What’s up for me today is going to work as a telephone interviewer.

    Not crazy about the work, either as something for me to do or as something for anyone to do, but I’ve worked for them in the past and know they’re honest and humane bosses, and that’s not something you can take for granted.

    Still hoping the online books will start selling, though.

  120. 120.

    WaterGirl

    June 10, 2015 at 11:11 am

    @MomSense: Your son’s misunderstanding of period films is hysterical! I look forward to hearing about the films and the mandated discussion.

  121. 121.

    JPL

    June 10, 2015 at 11:11 am

    @PurpleGirl: It’s always sad to lose a pet, but I can’t imagine waking to find that my beloved died during the night. It might be good for the pet, but it’s such a sad loss.

  122. 122.

    Bobby Thomson

    June 10, 2015 at 11:12 am

    @Valdivia: best go find a rock. Medicaid expansion was ruled unconstitutional based on a principle they made up on the spot. Ours is a government of men, not laws.

  123. 123.

    Matt McIrvin

    June 10, 2015 at 11:12 am

    @Kay: For that matter, there seems to be an amazing amount of internecine fighting within the animal-welfare movement: lots of people claiming that the HSUS is deceptively associating itself with unrelated shelter organizations by calling itself a “Humane Society”, enmity between the kill-shelter and no-kill-shelter people and between people who mostly like pets and people who are morally opposed to pets, and everyone hates PETA.

  124. 124.

    PurpleGirl

    June 10, 2015 at 11:18 am

    @JPL: Not that I’m a defender of big banks, but that is a great commercial. It has a lot of love in it. (Agreed having a hanky close-by is a good idea.)

    Franklin Graham can go f**k himself with rusty pitchfork

  125. 125.

    JustRuss

    June 10, 2015 at 11:39 am

    Do they really wish to cause the massive societal upheaval that would come from killing a law that is now a routine part of American life?

    An excellent question, and, sadly, not rhetorical. For some people it’s hard to resist kicking the hornets’ nest when there’s absolutely no chance you’ll be stung. Look at the Bush regime and Iraq. Among the many reasons they had for invading, it was pretty clear that one of them was the rush that comes from being being tough guys willing to make the tough decision to totally fuck up another country. Exercising power wasn’t just a means, it was an end in itself.

    The Supremes have nothing to lose by causing “massive societal upheaval”, some of them will revel in it. I hope Roberts is reasonable enough to do the right thing, but I wouldn’t bet the farm on him either way.

  126. 126.

    raven

    June 10, 2015 at 11:39 am

    @JPL: But it was not unexpected. The big fella had been struggling for a couple of weeks and it was pretty apparent that his time was limited. None of that makes any difference, sudden, long fight or in between.

  127. 127.

    raven

    June 10, 2015 at 11:40 am

    @JustRuss: So are they supposed to rule by what the impact is or their interpretation of the law?

  128. 128.

    Origuy

    June 10, 2015 at 12:07 pm

    @Steeplejack:

    I discovered no hot water in the bathroom. I can deal with roughing it when I travel, but I really like a hot shower to start the day—especially when I’m expecting it!

    I took a train from Seville to Grenada one time and stayed in a little pensión where the operator spoke only Spanish. She told me something about the water at night and I thought she was saying that the hot water heater was off at night–not unusual. I went into my room and took a nap, planning to shower when I got up. I overslept and woke to find that the water was off entirely. Turned out that Grenada was in a long drought and the city water was turned off for the night. I had to get a bottle of water to brush my teeth. Only the big hotels had cisterns for the guests.

  129. 129.

    Goblue72

    June 10, 2015 at 12:10 pm

    Where are some armed Bolsheviks when you need them?

  130. 130.

    Valdivia

    June 10, 2015 at 12:23 pm

    @Bobby Thomson: But there was a case asking for a ruling on it no? I agree that they will make up rules on whatever is in *front of them* if it serves their purposes. But will they rule on something that wasn’t even argued, or contested or even part of the case? Again, if they have already done this, take one case to rule on things that have not been presented or argued, expanding the case to include other laws etc. then a rock is not even going to be enough for me to hide under.

  131. 131.

    rikyrah

    June 10, 2015 at 12:56 pm

    @catclub:

    That is like blaming the poor people in Mississippi for how the rest of Mississippi votes. I disagree. And we both know how the poorest people in Mississippi vote. It ain’t Republican.

    The poor Black people don’t vote Republican.

    The poor White folks….well…..

    Let me make this clear:
    There is no greater obvious success of Obamacare than Kentucky – it ranks among the top 3 success stories of Obamacare.

    Kentucky, in the top 3 of something positive.

    Bevin should be laughed at.

    There shouldn’t even be the possibility that he could win.

    And, yet…he’s a contender.

  132. 132.

    fuckwit

    June 10, 2015 at 1:29 pm

    I am lucky to live in a state that has its shit together so we have an exchange and would not be ass-fucked by the SCOTUS taking a swipe at ACA in King.

    But what happens to all the Americans stuck in states that have sadistic Rethug legislatures? They lose their health care. They go from fucked to hella fucked.

  133. 133.

    catclub

    June 10, 2015 at 2:09 pm

    @fuckwit:

    But what happens to all the Americans stuck in states that have sadistic Rethug legislatures? They lose their health care. They go from fucked to hella fucked.

    Well, the number losing their subsidy is around 3% of the total population. Everybody else falls into: Medicare, employer based Health ins, medicaid.

  134. 134.

    Fair Economist

    June 10, 2015 at 5:49 pm

    @geg6:

    Seeing Thurston’s pic and how big he is and how different he looks makes me think people might be curious about how Lovey is faring.

    And you are correct!

  135. 135.

    J R in WV

    June 10, 2015 at 8:03 pm

    @Kay:

    Kay,

    The same for the Chesapeake Bay Project! Non-Point Source Pollution is from timber and construction (a little bit) and Agriculture, plowing, tilling, fertilization, leaving thousands of acres of raw dirt to lay exposed to heavy rain for months, then tilled and planted, and then fertilized and treated with pesticides (read poisons), which all runs off into the Bay, where it causes toxic algae blooms, siltation that kills shellfish, etc.

    And of course it’s very difficult to prove where runoff pollution comes from, as opposed to outfalls from giant factories and mines.

    What, water pollution?? From my organic family farm??? NO WAY!! I farm the way my Pa and Grand-Pa did, with plows, and duPont! Get away from my family farm, all 250,000 acres of it!

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