Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The Supreme Court is corrupt. Democrats must win in November and force court reform.

If marriage is the equivalent of selling yourself into slavery, women with self respect should reject the offer.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

‘Museums aren’t America’s attic for its racist shit.’

I really should read my own blog.

Wake up. Grow up. Get in the fight.

A lot of Dems talk about what the media tells them to talk about. Not helpful.

Even though I know this is a bad idea, I’m off to do it anyway!

Fight them, without becoming them!

The gop couldn’t organize an orgy in a whorehouse with a fist full of 50s.

I’m sure you banged some questionable people yourself. We’re allowed to grow past that.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

Cole, when it comes to calico cats, restraint is overrated.

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

I have other things to bitch about but those will have to wait.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

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

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

Republicans want to make it harder to vote and easier for them to cheat.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.

Michigan is a great lesson for Dems everywhere: when you have power…use it!

Don’t expect peaches from an apple tree.

You are here: Home / 2016 / Archives for February 2016

Archives for February 2016

(Perceptually) Long Read: “When Racism Trumps Socialism”

by | 272 Comments

This post is in: , , ,

Longterm commentor The Conster linked to Propane Jane’s post last night, and I found it really interesting. Yes, the string-of-tweets format can be… visually intrusive… for some of us, but in the Storify format, all you have to do is read from the top to the bottom. These are extracts:

(Perceptually) Long Read: “When Racism Trumps Socialism”Post + Comments (272)

Wingnuttery Has Costs

by | 84 Comments

This post is in: 

Researchers studied reproductive health choices in Texas after the attacks on Planned Parenthood, and the outcomes are not good (unless forced birth is your kind of thang):

Defunding Planned Parenthood clinics leaves some poor women unable to access the most effective forms of birth control, according to a new study from Texas-based researchers.

Experts from the Texas Policy Evaluation Project, a multi-year research project that’s tracking reproductive health outcomes in the Lone Star State, examined data from women who rely on Medicaid after GOP legislators stripped funds from Planned Parenthood in 2013.

Among women in the public health program, there was a 35 percent decline in claims for IUDs and implants — and a dramatic 27 percent spike in births — after Planned Parenthood was kicked out of Texas’ family planning network. Those numbers suggest that disadvantaged women are struggling to get the contraceptive services they need and are instead going on to give birth.

“The U.S. continues to have higher rates of unintended pregnancies than most rich nations, and we know that U.S. and Texas women face barriers as they try to access preventative services,” Amanda Jean Stevenson, one of the lead authors of the study and a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Texas of Austin, said in a statement accompanying the study results. “It’s a public health issue that Texas women struggle to achieve their reproductive goals.”

Previous research examining Planned Parenthood’s patient base has confirmed that pulling support for the national women’s health organization disproportionately harms low-income Americans who don’t have anywhere else to go for affordable contraceptive services. In a recent survey of Texas patients themselves, more than half of them said they’ve faced at least one barrier to getting the reproductive health services they need in the years since politicians made changes to the publicly funded family planning network.

Whether it is Clinton or Sanders, we simply can not lose on the national level and we have GOT to get our asses in gear on the local and state level.

Wingnuttery Has CostsPost + Comments (84)

Busy, Busy, Busy (Open Thread — Updated)

by | 195 Comments

This post is in: , ,

No time to post right now, but it looks like y’all could use an open thread uncontaminated by partisan rancor, so here it is!

ETA: Goddamn, this is hilarious:

Summary if you can’t watch: Santorum goes on Morning Joe to endorse Rubio and when asked, can’t name a single Rubio accomplishment. He tries to excuse Rubio’s empty senatorial CV by saying there was gridlock because the Democrats controlled the Senate. When told the Republicans have controlled the Senate for a year now, he says Lil’ Marco was too busy campaigning for president to do anything, then starts whining about the unfairness of the question. Jeebus, what a face-plant!

Busy, Busy, Busy (Open Thread — Updated)Post + Comments (195)

Des Moines Register Calls for Audit of Democratic Caucuses

by | 344 Comments

This post is in: 

When a fundamentally undemocratic process is a major revenue and influence source for your (small, unrepresentative) state, public perception counts. So in an editorial unsubtly titled, “Something Smells in the Democratic Party,” the Des Moines Register (which, btw, endorsed Hillary) is calling for a full audit:

What happened Monday night at the Democratic caucuses was a debacle, period. Democracy, particularly at the local party level, can be slow, messy and obscure. But the refusal to undergo scrutiny or allow for an appeal reeks of autocracy.

The Iowa Democratic Party must act quickly to assure the accuracy of the caucus results, beyond a shadow of a doubt.

First of all, the results were too close not to do a complete audit of results. Two-tenths of 1 percent separated Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton. A caucus should not be confused with an election, but it’s worth noting that much larger margins trigger automatic recounts in other states.

Second, too many questions have been raised. Too many accounts have arisen of inconsistent counts, untrained and overwhelmed volunteers, confused voters, cramped precinct locations, a lack of voter registration forms and other problems. Too many of us, including members of the Register editorial board who were observing caucuses, saw opportunities for error amid Monday night’s chaos.

But I know: Bernie supporters are so annoying.

Des Moines Register Calls for Audit of Democratic CaucusesPost + Comments (344)

UHC and their strategy in two pictures

by | 19 Comments

This post is in: 

This is a follow-up from yesterday’s post on United Healthcare self-inflicted woes:

covered CA

I chose Redding, California as it was the first town in Northern California that was readily apparent on Google Maps. As you can see, for a 40 year old non-smoker, United Healthcare’s lowest priced Silver is $79 more per month than the benchmark plan.  For someone making exactly 150% of the Federal Poverty Line this is roughly 5% more of their monthly income.

Andrew Sprung on another matter pulled up UHC’s pricing versus a narrow network Medicaid based insurer in several major markets:

 

Again, the difference between the cheapest plan and the lowest priced UHC plan for someone who makes 150% FPL is several percent or more of their monthly income.  In Atlanta and Chicago, to buy UHC’s products it would be a bump of 6% of monthly income for that individual.

We know the Exchanges are price sensitive for most people.  The only people where the 6% of their monthly income might be worth it would be people who know they are very sick and they have very high needs that they want to have met by doctors they’ve seen for years at facilities they have used for years.

 

UHC and their strategy in two picturesPost + Comments (19)

Walking the Walk: DeRay McKesson Is Running for Mayor of Baltimore

by | 90 Comments

This post is in: , , ,

Wesley Lowrey, in the Washington Post, “DeRay Mckesson, Black Lives Matter activist, launches last-minute bid to become mayor of Baltimore”:

… The activist waited until the final hour before the 9 p.m., Feb. 3, filing deadline to launch the surprise, long-shot bid, which begins just 83 days before voters head to the polls. Because Democrats far outnumber Republicans in the city, Baltimore’s April 26 primary is expected to determine who replaces Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, the once-rising star in national Democratic politics who announced last year that she would not seek reelection.

“Baltimore is at a moment,” Mckesson, who becomes the first of the prominent post-Ferguson activists to seek public office, said in a phone interview on Wednesday night. “I’m running to usher Baltimore into a new era where our government is accountable to its people and aggressively innovative in how it identifies and solves problems.”

Mckesson, 30, joins a crowded field that includes former mayor Sheila Dixon, who is leading in the polls, state Sen. Catherine Pugh, and city councilmen Carl Stokes and Nick Mosby as well as 10 other Democratic candidates…
===========
… [O]n a brisk Saturday afternoon in January, a paper sign was taped to the building’s thick glass front door: “DeRay’s meeting: third floor.”

The four-hour policy meeting — attended by a Washington Post reporter on the condition that details of the gathering would not be reported until after Mckesson made his final decision on whether he would enter the race — was a free-for-all, in which a dozen participants reviewed data on education, housing, and criminal justice.

In attendance were Johnetta Elzie and Samuel Sinyangwe, two activists who, with Mckesson, run Campaign Zero (the fourth partner, Brittany Packnett, joined the meeting via conference call); Donnie O’Callaghan, an education policy analyst and Mckesson’s best friend, and several city officials who knew Mckesson from his time working for the school district and his prior nonprofit and community organizing work.

While Mckesson is best known publicly for his advocacy around criminal justice and policing policy, the bulk of the meeting was spent discussing a host of other issues: education, housing and public health…

Much more detail, and useful links to other long profiles of Mckesson, at the link.

Walking the Walk: DeRay McKesson Is Running for Mayor of BaltimorePost + Comments (90)