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You are here: Home / Politics / An Unexamined Scandal / Tuesday Morning Open Thread

Tuesday Morning Open Thread

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(Jeff Danziger’s website)
.

Apart from protesting Ryan’s pathetic attempt to destroy the ACA… and the President-Asterisk’s administration’s second attempt at a Muslim ban — what’s on the agenda for the day?

Professor Krugman, on “A Party Not Ready to Govern“:

… It goes without saying that Donald Trump is the least qualified individual, temperamentally or intellectually, ever installed in the White House. As he veers from wild accusations against President Obama to snide remarks about Arnold Schwarzenegger, he’s doing a very good imitation of someone experiencing a personal breakdown — even though he has yet to confront a crisis not of his own making. Thanks, Comey.

But the broader Republican quagmire — the party’s failure so far to make significant progress toward any of its policy promises — isn’t just about Mr. Trump’s inadequacies. The whole party, it turns out, has been faking it for years. Its leaders’ rhetoric was empty; they have no idea how to turn their slogans into actual legislation, because they’ve never bothered to understand how anything important works…

The story of Obamacare repeal would be funny if the health care — and, in many cases, the lives — of millions of Americans weren’t at stake.

First we had seven — seven! — years during which Republicans kept promising to offer an alternative to Obamacare any day now, but never did. Then came the months after the election, with more promises of details just around the corner…

Sure enough, the new plan reportedly does look like a sort of half-baked version of the Affordable Care Act. Politically, it seems to embody the worst of both worlds: It’s enough like Obamacare to infuriate hard-line conservatives, but it weakens key aspects of the law enough to deprive millions of Americans — many of them white working-class voters who backed Donald Trump — of essential health care.

The idea, apparently, is to deal with these problems by passing the plan before anyone gets a chance to really see or think about what’s in it. Good luck with that…

But whatever the eventual outcome, what we’re witnessing is what happens when a party that gave up hard thinking in favor of empty sloganeering ends up in charge of actual policy. And it’s not a pretty sight.

Reader Interactions

209Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    All we want is life beyond the thunderdome

    I think I would settle for Thunderdome at this point.

  2. 2.

    Schlemazel

    There goes that mean old pointy-headed liberal elitist Krugman talking down to real Americans. Those of us out here in the Heartland don’t like it when you liberals talk to us like we are stupis and just to show you who is boss we will re-elect President Trump. THAT’LL TEACH YOU!

  6. 6.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    Good morning! I see in the pic on Krugman’s article that he’s still using that “I’m a big boy, see how serious I look” frown that he had on at the beginning of each debate (before devolving to full “Downfall” by the end).

    Still looks like a student who forgot to read the material and is pretending to know what teacher is talking about.

  7. 7.

    weaselone

    The plan doesn’t take much analysis.

    1.It provides fewer benefits than Obamacare
    2. It costs more money than Obamacare
    3. It still has a mandate, it’s just less effective and you just pay the insurance company instead of the government
    4. It screws over about 20 million people who have employer provided insurance
    5. It gives a tax incentive to Insurance providers to pay their CEOs more.

  9. 9.

    Craig McMahon

    Good morning, team! I decided to turn over a new leaf, get up 90min before I had to, and take myself for a morning jog.

    I nailed the getting up, but “morning jog” got modified into “second cup of coffee and internet.”

  11. 11.

    Phylllis

    Like that man in the shadows said in the movie that time, “These are not bright guys.”

  12. 12.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    One of my pointless little one-person protests: I refuse to use his name in a sentence with the word “president” in it. In fact I have a hard time uttering his name at all.

    But I wonder if we could start educating the American public on the very nice British intransitive verb “to trump”, meaning, as far as I can gather from the intertubes, “to fart audibly”.

  16. 16.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Craig McMahon: Yep, I have the alarm set at 4:15 am to allow myself time for “stretching and meditation” (I leave the house just after 5).

    That’s the theory. Here’s the reality: I also have alarms at 4:30 and 4:45 am (amazingly, my wife has trained herself to sleep through all of this rather than murder me in my sleep). At 4:15 I think “I can still make it if I stay in bed a while longer”. At 4:30 I think the same. But my body actually knows I can get up at 4:45 and still make my train. And sometimes it’s after 4:50.

  19. 19.

    WereBear

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: But I wonder if we could start educating the American public on the very nice British intransitive verb “to trump”, meaning, as far as I can gather from the intertubes, “to fart audibly”.

    I like your idea, but i don’t want your newsletter.

  20. 20.

    gene108

    @Craig McMahon:

    I am so with you on morning exercise giving way to internet.

    Sad thing is, I used to regularly exercise in my 20’s. I used to enjoy it. I am not sure where that passions gone. Now exercise feels more like a chore.

  21. 21.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Baud: Unlike the 60’s and 70’s, the sky is generally blue here in LA.
    @rikyrah: Thanks.

    ETA: That pic has Westwood on the left, Century City in the middle, and snowcapped Mt. San Antonio on the right. Mt. San Antonio(elevation 10,000 feet) is about 50 miles from where the photo was taken.

  30. 30.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Baud: Back when I worked on the 46th floor of Satan’s black tower, there was one day the air quality sucked so bad we couldn’t see the ground out the window. However we could see Mt. San Jacinto 100 miles away.

  38. 38.

    Schlemazel

    @BlueDWarrior:
    Not really joking though it certainly could be taken that way & I wish I were.

    @amk:
    No, its :Why a duck?” h/t Chico OTOH, I have no idea if there is some symbolism in the riding backwards on cow thing. Personally I would have drawn it with Hair Furor behind the cow with his pants around his ankles

  43. 43.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Baud: My right shoulder has some pain, I was a bit concerned and then remembered that I was carrying my camera backpack on my right shoulder most of the day.

    ETA: I did fit in with the UCLA students while I was on campus with the heavy backpack.

  44. 44.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Baud: My old car had 5 on the floor, it was a manual transmission. I’ve got a 2010 Prius, the shift is on the center console and is like a joystick in that you select the gear or mode and it returns to the center position.

  46. 46.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Aimai: On my laptop, Krugman’s article (the one linked by AL) has at the top this image. Hopefully that link will work.

    It shows T with a big-boy frowny-face, flanked by a smiling Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell. At least I think smiling is what McConnell is doing. It may just be some sort of post-mortem muscle spasm.

    And as I said, that frowny-face always says to me, “I’m trying to look like an adult here who knows what’s going on” while achieving exactly the opposite of the desired effect.

  51. 51.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Just commenting on the various claims of where the internet was invented, not the veracity of any of them, or the finer points of said claims..

  52. 52.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Baud: You have no choice but to settle. Republicans don’t know how to govern — just how to obstruct a legitimate, intelligent President for 8 years. So now we’ll have to settle with them destroying this country for at least until November 2018. Fun times ahead.

    #Resist!

  56. 56.

    p.a.

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:

    And as I said, that frowny-face always says to me, “I’m trying to look like an adult here who knows what’s going” while achieving exactly the opposite of the desired effect.

    I’m Pwesident. Gimme something to sign so I can be Presidenting today!

  57. 57.

    bystander

    I got called “libtard” on fb the other day. No really.

    Why don’t we try out Ryan’s plan but only in Wisconsin? Maybe throw in Kentucky for balance. It would be fun to see the relative costs and mortality rates.

  58. 58.

    bemused

    There are a lot of Republicans who think of themselves as middle class and don’t believe repeal/replace will negatively affect their employee health care coverage, still on the job or retired, or their Medicare coverage or that reducing Medicaid funds will ever touch them. I like the retort in previous thread, p.a?, who asked his cousin crowing about repeal/replace which room he was going to move his Medicaid covered nursing home sister into.
    One liners like this may not change rightwingers’ minds but can shut them up fast and possibly make them nervous. There’s no use trying to point out how many people will suffer or die unless the point hits very close to home. It’s not just those others, it could be me.

  59. 59.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: The people at CERN say otherwise (they have a plaque on the wall too) Your differentiation that one invented the internet and the other the web is a distinction without a difference to this Luddite. I really don’t care and only take this opportunity to point and laugh at them:

    We did it!
    No, WE did it!
    No you didn’t, WE did it!
    Did not!
    Did too!
    Did not! Did not! Did not! Did not! Did not! Did not! Did not! Did not!
    Did too! Did too! Did too! Did too! Did too! Did too! Did too! Did too!

  63. 63.

    Cermet

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: Soon to be the big six-oh and my alarm is set for 2:51 AM so I can both beat traffic and have extra time to exercise, then study some advanced mathematics and then, read/post at BJ before finally, starting my job. Keeps me sane in this tRump world (aka insane country.)

  65. 65.

    Baud

    @Cermet:

    then study some advanced mathematics and then, read/post at BJ before finally,

    Doesn’t the latter undo the former?

  66. 66.

    bemused

    @Baud:

    Me too. Gotta think of more bumper sticker size retorts like that. Rightwingers can’t listen to more than a sentence particularly if it’s said by a liberal. Have to get a quick shot in before their eyes glaze over. You know what I mean. You can just see them tune you right out if it’s more than a sentence or two because it’s coming from a liberal.

  67. 67.

    debbie

    @weaselone:

    The only way to see if the new plan works is to run a field test with Congress. Let them have this as their health plan for five years. Then analyze the results. It seems only fair.

  70. 70.

    satby

    @bemused: the beauty of your reply is that it’s short, sweet, and hits him personally. Because nothing is real to a conservative unless it happens to them or someone in their circle. When they have to start worrying about nursing homes sending their incontinent dementia suffering relatives home to live is when they’ll develop a new appreciation for Medicaid.

  71. 71.

    Iowa Old Lady

    Someone has pinned a tweet at the top of Trump’s feed that says “There is an incredible spirit of optimism sweeping the country right now—we’re bringing back the JOBS!” That can’t have been by him since I doubt if he knows how to pin a tweet.

    Right under that is this from 5 minutes ago: “Our wonderful new Healthcare Bill is now out for review and negotiation. ObamaCare is a complete and total disaster – is imploding fast!”

    And this from 10 minutes: “122 vicious prisoners, released by the Obama Administration from Gitmo, have returned to the battlefield. Just another terrible decision!”

    Now those I’m sure he wrote.

  73. 73.

    debbie

    @Iowa Old Lady:

    Except that yesterday, Ford said they were ending their third shift and laying off those workers. What about those JOBS, Mr. President?

    ETA: You know that if one automakers does something, the others soon follow suit.

  74. 74.

    Baud

    @Iowa Old Lady:

    “There is an incredible spirit of optimism sweeping the country right now—we’re bringing back the JOBS!”

    I’m jealous that the GOP never has to admit they need to do more.

    @debbie: Those don’t count.

  75. 75.

    Elizabelle

    Good morning, all.

    Thinking that this current situation is the biggest reason ever to increase the tax rate on the wealthy, particularly the extremely wealthy. Tax the latter so heavily they can’t try to buy our government in an end run around the citizenry. No good comes of having that much fortune in the hands of so many.

    Condense that into a bumpersticker. FDR no doubt had some prime words on the subject.

    Not following politics much. It’s like we’re through the looking glass, the good queen and the grownups were spirited away, and we’ve got a vengeful Rumplestiltskin character on the throne, except that he spins good into dross.

    It’s appalling to see (a lot of) millionaire GOP congresscritters with government-paid healthcare and actual pensions spin away healthcare affordability for the middle and working class. This is so ugly. It should get ugly for them. Real ugly.

  77. 77.

    Patricia Kayden

    @bystander:

    It would be fun to see the relative costs and mortality rates.

    I’m sure Republicans would be ecstatic if people die because of lack access to healthcare just like before the ACA. Isn’t that what Rand Paul had suggested during a GOP debate to wild applause?

  80. 80.

    SFAW

    @bemused:

    One liners like this may not change rightwingers’ minds but can shut them up fast and possibly make them nervous. There’s no use trying to point out how many people will suffer or die unless the point hits very close to home. It’s not just those others, it could be me.

    They will never make that connection, because it requires rational, logical thought to get there. No, I’m not being snarky. Well, not ONLY.

  81. 81.

    SFAW

    And whether it’s a cow or a bull, I don’t get the point Danziger’s trying to make.

    My brain’s smoothing-out apparently is accelerating. Thanks, Obama!

  84. 84.

    Hal

    How much you want to bet that all that applause Obama received in New York City set Trump off. I truly believe Trump is deeply envious and jealous of Obama. Not to mention the white supremacist in him hates being inferior to a black man.

  85. 85.

    Jeffro

    @weaselone:

    The plan doesn’t take much analysis.

    1.It provides fewer benefits than Obamacare
    2. It costs more money than Obamacare
    3. It still has a mandate, it’s just less effective and you just pay the insurance company instead of the government
    4. It screws over about 20 million people who have employer provided insurance
    5. It gives a tax incentive to Insurance providers to pay their CEOs more.

    You’re being harsh…the GOP doesn’t “do” policy, dontcha know…

    I laughed when I saw that “hey, there’s no mandate…except if you don’t maintain coverage, you pay a ‘surcharge’…and oh by the way, you pay it to insurance companies not the gubmint…” Yes, that is some serious Ryan-ish wonkiness right there. Hey at least they’re consistent!

  87. 87.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Todd Otis Sweet’s indictment claims that between about July 1 and Aug. 15, 2016, he made tools that helped him cut through the metal wall of his jail cell, an interior metal beam, an exterior concrete block wall and a metal bar above a window, the indictment says.

    Sweet hid his work by hanging a towel over the hole in the cell wall, the indictment says. It does not say at what point the escape attempt was discovered.

    I guess he had a lot of time on his hands.

  89. 89.

    Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism

    @OzarkHillbilly: That’s only because you weren’t on the internet before the Web, in the all-ASCII days of Gopher and Archie and Veronica.

    A few years ago, I had an IT guy spinning up his “What is email?” lecture for the new draftsman (me), and I said, “Just stop. My first email client was Elm.” He took a deep breath, and said, “OK, that will save us a lot of time.”

  92. 92.

    Jeffro

    @Hal: Trump has it all backwards and always will in regards to Obama. If you focus on doing the right things for your fellow citizens and country, if you live right, if you treat others with respect…it comes back to you tenfold.

    Trump expects everyone to kiss his ass and then maybe, just maybe, he’ll do something for the country (which in Trump’s mind, in most cases, means “doing something for billionaires and thinking it’ll probably trickle down to the plebes.”)

  96. 96.

    SFAW

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    I saw the birthplace of the Internet yesterday.

    What were you doing in Al Gore’s garage? And how the heck did you get back to the Left Coast so fast?

  97. 97.

    bemused

    @satby:

    Even people who consider middle class can lose everything they worked all their lives for in one devastating accident or illness or series of serious illnesses, elderly or not and could end up in a nursing home under Medicaid. I’m sure they have peers, family, friends, neighbors in that situation but they never want to think it could happen to them. Everyone not in the top income tier should realize the risk is there.

  98. 98.

    JMG

    The grifting like cutting down on the IRS and ending regulation of industries is the only part of government Trump understands. If he had to stand in public and explain and defend Ryan’s bill, he’d lapse into silence or rage at the world within two minutes.

  101. 101.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @SFAW:

    What were you doing in Al Gore’s garage?

    Where else would you park a Prius?

    And how the heck did you get back to the Left Coast so fast?

    Shhhh. Al shared with me his newest invention… I can’t say anymore about it.

  102. 102.

    SFAW

    @JMG:

    he’d lapse into silence or rage at the world within two minutes.

    Oh, bullshit. He’d spend the first five minutes talking about the 360 EV he got in his landslide victory. And that, if you take away all “those” voters, he won the popular vote by 10 Million.

    But after he was done with that, I agree with your assessment.

  103. 103.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism: No, it’s because I DON’T CARE. I am a Luddite. I DON’T WANT TO KNOW. Because IT MAKES ABSOLUTELY NO DIFFERENCE IN MY LIFE. I have other more pressing problems and situations I need to learn about. If *I* was suddenly no longer able to access the internet, my life would change only in that I would have to find another way to entertain myself in the early AM.

    ** take note, I specifically say “I”, not the world. If the internet suddenly disappeared from the world I know that I would be massively impacted because so much of what happens these days is dependent on the internet.

  105. 105.

    SFAW

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    If *I* was suddenly no longer able to access the internet, my life would change only in that I would have to find another way to entertain myself in the early AM.

    And who else here would be the one to say “You suck” to Quinerly? Not I.

  106. 106.

    bemused

    @SFAW:

    If it scares or makes just a few rightwingers worry a bit, it would be worth it. If not, it would be quite enjoyable to have some sarcastic zingers to roll out instead of wanting to throttle the fools.

  107. 107.

    sunny raines

    finish the sentence…

    ‘what we’re witnessing is what happens when a party that gave up hard thinking in favor of empty sloganeering ends up in charge of actual policy” because too many of the electorate lack the cognitive capability and moral clarity to not be manipulated by empty sloganeering.

  109. 109.

    Tripod

    @Hal:

    Has he been back to NYC? He keeps running to FLA on weekends. Maybe the Obama spotting set him off.

  110. 110.

    WereBear

    @satby: As they are bulldozed into piles for dropping into the Grand Canyon, even then their last flickering thoughts will be “Stupid libtards! They said it would be ovens!”

  111. 111.

    bemused

    I liked Matt Yglesias tweet re: GOP list to cut health care to elderly, blind and disabled, children and adults.

    “Reducing care for the blind will increase the incentive to maintain sightedness”

    Yay. Incentive for elderly, disabled children and adults to get jobs, learn to walk again, etc etc.

  113. 113.

    Baud

    @SFAW: I believe in the honor system. Much less expensive.

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    If *I* was suddenly no longer able to access the internet, my life would change only in that I would have to find another way to entertain myself in the early AM.

    I would probably become a productive member of society.

  114. 114.

    SFAW

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    He’ll never be done with that.

    Well, if President Bannonazi gets tired enough of hearing about it, and quotes Lebowski at him, he might.

    (Who am I kidding? Bannonazi watching Lebowski?)

  118. 118.

    Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism

    @SFAW: Soitenly!

    I’m too old to have had internet access via my university, so I didn’t get to dip my toes in until the net started opening up to commercial services. The first real ISP here (IIRC) was a venture by the local newspaper.

  121. 121.

    Tripod

    Ryan is brick stupid, and Trump in the thrall of dementia, but McConnell is the worst. He seems to have had a soul at one point, and traded everything for a position that he can’t leverage or use.

    He’ll fuck majority leader away in short order, having acomplished nothing in his tenure.

  122. 122.

    Kay

    Supposedly a normal person in the Trump Administration:

    DHS Sec Kelly to @WolfBlitzer on Trump’s wiretap charge: If Trump said it, “he’s got some convincing evidence”

    Trump makes the people around him worse. He’s the rock bottom and they all end up meeting him there – they have to- they work for him and he has to be defended daily. They’re all just so weak and easily compromised. It’s depressing to watch. I watched the Jeff Sessions “my honor has been impugned” speech and it’s infuriating to be lectured on ethics by that little weasel. How dare he scold anyone on integrity.

    It was always much more likely that Trump would influence the people around him rather than them somehow elevating Trump. It’ll get worse as the few decent people give up and flee and the rest go along to get along.

  123. 123.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Hal: And President Obama has so much that Trump will never have — like a loving wife, intellect and swag. President Obama turned this country around when it came to foreign relations and the economy. Trump’s administration has been a mess so far and he must know that a huge portion of the population doesn’t care for him given the multiple protests that have been held since his inauguration.

    Trump’s nasty lies about President Obama just show that there is no need to treat him with any respect. I still wish that President Obama hadn’t met with him in the White House or that the Democrats had skipped out on his SOTU last week. No need to normalize someone like Trump is big or small ways.

  125. 125.

    WereBear

    @Tripod: McConnell is the worst

    I recoil from his face as though I had been served dog vomit in a restaurant.

    Part of why I’ve been avoiding the “news” is how so many disgusting specimens of humanity parade through it. And are not recognized as such.

  126. 126.

    Iowa Old Lady

    @SFAW: I taught in an engineering college and the backbone was laid into those places early. I had internet before either my engineer husband or computer crazy son did.

    You didn’t have internet in your house then, children.

  127. 127.

    satby

    @bemused: I was comfortably middle class myself (finally, after years of struggle as a single mom) when I got laid off at 59 1/2 from my well paid IT management job; so it doesn’t take a catastrophic health problem to throw you into poverty. It takes longer, but without an equivalent (or even 1/2 equivalent) job, you’ll ultimately slide down the slope.

    You would think that conservatives I know would take that lesson to heart, but they always found a way to blame me for my fall: I didn’t have the right credentials anymore, I didn’t live in the right place to get a new job, I should have seen that coming forty years earlier and stayed in college, I should have stayed married. If it’s always something you did wrong, then maybe they’re safe and there’s no need to consider big social policies and their effects.

    But when the same bad luck befalls a conservative? It’s SO UNFAIR! They played by the rules, but got screwed while someone else got the goodies they were supposed to have.

  128. 128.

    ThresherK

    @SFAW: VaxPhone is still alive, and more popular that you think. It’s now a BigPharma/Goverment conspiracy to inject vaccines into the children of conscientious public health objectors. (Those kidz love their Angry Marios.) Try to keep up.

  129. 129.

    TS

    Wonder why anyone thought this presidenting would be difficult. All you have to do is tweet sh!t, sign whatever Bannon puts in front of you and fly to Florida to eat and play golf.

    If anything bad happens – blame Obama.

  131. 131.

    Elizabelle

    @WereBear: Yeah. I am on a severely reduced news diet too. Just a skim of headlines and checking in on thread topics here.

    I’d be interested if actual news readership and viewing is down. Maybe it is, maybe not (the accident/roadkill gawking set).

  133. 133.

    Kay

    We have a corrupt municipal ct judge. It’s been about 5 years and there’s (finally) a move afoot to get rid of him – he breached some invisible (to me) barrier of local acceptance- some critical mass shifted among the local bigwigs- and now it’s just a matter of time. They’re gunning for him and there’s plenty of ammunition.

    I think what happened is for the first few years he was held up by career people. They sort of kept some semblance of standards in place but as they (often early) retired or gave up and quit it got worse and worse because the new people were his hires. He made it worse every year he was in there.

    It’s interesting comparing it to the national scene because this is effective institutional backlash. They’ll actually bring him down. They could have gone the other way, I suppose and all become scumbags but they didn’t. You wonder what the factor is there – whether it’s individuals that make up “institutions” or protecting the idea of the institution itself. The thing can’t have strength that exceeds the collective strength of the individuals- it has to be a sum of parts, right?

  134. 134.

    OzarkHillbilly

    So this is cool:

    Somewhere in the small Slovakian village of Chl’aba, an old couple sit perched, at the end of their bed, she dressed in plum and he in navy. This is a room that is saturated by the past. The toll of time seeps from the sepia wedding photo, the faded wallpaper and the matching 70s mustard pillows. It lines the faces of Gizka and Gyulabacsi as they sit and look, not at each other, but away, staring out sadly at nothing at all.

    This moving snapshot of loss was captured by photographer Gabriela Bulisova. It is part of a series documenting her return to her mother’s native village in Slovakia, capturing the lives of its diminishing inhabitants and, in turn, the fractured past and future of Europe. It also just one of the hundreds of photographs now being showcased on Women Photograph, a website set up last month by Daniella Zalcman, herself a photojournalist.

    ……

    Over the past five years, women have accounted for just 15% of the entries to the World Press Photo awards. Zalcman points out that more than 50% of students on photography and photojournalism courses are women, but “when you look at 30-year-old news photographers, all of a sudden all the women are gone and it becomes 60% or 70% male. So the question is, what happens in those intervening years? Too many women are having bad experiences and saying: ‘Screw it, I don’t want to have to put up with this for the rest of my career.’”

    ….

    “It also undoes that archaic idea that women are better at taking sensitive, social photos while men can better document war and tragedy,” she adds. Scrolling through the photos – of the brutal Ukrainian tanks captured by Jen Osborne, the gaudy nightclub queues of Dina Litovsky and the crowded corridor of an Indian train by Sara Hylton – it is clear that a woman’s gaze is anything but narrow.

    I could lose months in that website. Probably will.

    via the Guardian.

  135. 135.

    Anne Laurie

    @amk:

    Is that a cow? Why a cow?

    I assume it is a bull, and Trump is positioned to catch its every byproduct.

    Note the ring through its nose — it’s easier to control a testosterone-fueled animal that weighs as much as a compact car if you can run a rope through a fixed piece of ‘body jewelry’ and force its head in the direction you want it to go. Speaking of metaphors for the GOP…

  136. 136.

    SFAW

    @satby:

    If it’s always something you did wrong, then maybe they’re safe and there’s no need to consider big social policies and their effects.

    But when the same bad luck befalls a conservative? It’s SO UNFAIR! They played by the rules, but got screwed while someone else got the goodies they were supposed to have.

    Depressing, because it’s true.

    Were John Rawls still alive, he’d either kill himself, or say “Fuck it!” and stay in a drug-induced haze.

  137. 137.

    NotMax

    FYI.

    Iraqi government forces fighting to drive ISIS from western Mosul on Tuesday recaptured the main government building, the central bank branch and the museum where three years ago the militants had smashed statues and artifacts.

    The government buildings had been destroyed and were not used by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, but their capture still represented a symbolic victory in the battle over the militant group’s last major stronghold in Iraq.
    [snip]
    They also seized a building that housed Islamic State’s main court of justice, known for its harsh sentences, including stonings, throwing people off building roofs and chopping off hands, reflecting Islamic State’s extreme ideology.
    [snip]
    U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces cut the last main road out of the ISIS capital there, Raqqa, on Monday. Islamic State is also fighting off the Russian-backed Syrian army as well as and Turkey and allied Syrian rebels. Source

  140. 140.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @satby: Anytime I have those conversations I always ask, “So if I pull out a shotgun and blow out your kneecaps will that be your fault for having hung out with me?”

  142. 142.

    Jeffro

    @Elizabelle:

    It’s appalling to see (a lot of) millionaire GOP congresscritters with government-paid healthcare and actual pensions spin away healthcare affordability for the middle and working class. This is so ugly. It should get ugly for them. Real ugly.

    I believe the good Congressman Chaffetz was just quoted as saying that some Americans may have to choose between upgrading their phone or getting health care. See, libs, this is why we can’t have nice things (or long lives)…we’re always going with those expensive phone upgrades. Also t-bones and lobster.

  144. 144.

    NotMax

    Weigh in, ladies, please.

    In a debate that has gone from office corridors to Britain’s Parliament, MPs have told employers to stop making women wear high heels as part of corporate dress codes.
    [snip]
    Labour MP Helen Jones, who helped lead a parliamentary investigation into dress codes, said she and her colleagues were shocked by what they found.

    “We found attitudes that belonged more, I was going to say in the 1950s, but probably the 1850s would be more accurate, than in the 21st century,” she told MPs. Source

    This non-female says it’s about damn time.

  145. 145.

    SFAW

    @WereBear:

    I recoil from his face as though I had been served dog vomit in a restaurant.

    “I recoil in horror from the foulness of thee”
    – God

    ETA: … as told to Randy Newman.

  146. 146.

    Anne Laurie

    @SFAW:

    You may be right, but if you are, that’s kind of an abstruse point Danziger’s trying to make.

    Danziger’s handicapped by having spent too much time hanging around actual livestock-owning farmers in Vermont.

    (Says someone who has had nothing but respect for farmers since I took Dairy Science 101 forty-plus years ago.)

  150. 150.

    Weaselone

    @satby:

    Conservatives seem to have a far greater fear of uncertainty and what they can’t control than liberals. Identifying how something is actually the fault of the victim and therefore can’t happen to them is a protective mechanism. It also probably feeds into their extreme and illogical positions on things like guns and terrorism. The lack of control and randomness leads them to embrace the illusion of control, even if the method they use actually increases the total risk to themselves.

    When something bad does happen to them, it sort of throws their worlds into upheaval. They protect their egos and reconcile the fact that they are good, prepared people yet something bad happened to them by assuming that they are a unique, special victims where the general rules do not apply. If they reach out for help, particularly from the government and find there is little available, they often pile on an additional sense of victimhood by imaging that they are not getting their fair share due to the undeserving hovering up all the assistance.

  151. 151.

    Bruce K

    Epistemic closure, ladies and gentlemen and others:

    I’ve yet to read a single positive analysis of the House’s Obamacare bill.— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) March 7, 2017

    Peanut gallery comment:

    @charlescwcooke try going 2 a conservative source? Open up your reading habits 2 include those w/ whom u would naturally dismiss— Carol Bannon (@MAcatholicmom) March 7, 2017

    Response:

    I’m the editor of National Review Online. https://t.co/1RbcoCl1Bb— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) March 7, 2017

    I’ve normally got zero use for the National Review – they gave legitimacy to the reactionaries in the modern GOP, so they bear some responsibility for the terrifying state of America in 2017 – but this was a bit funny…

  152. 152.

    TriassicSands

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:

    Krugman is much better in print than in person. In his still photos, he always looks “guilty” to me or at least very unsure of himself. On TV, he always struck me as seeming nervous and unsure of himself. IMO he is not a gifted speaker. In a world where appearance is more important than substance Krugman is at a disadvantage.

    Other people may disagree with my opinion. That wouldn’t surprise me.

  153. 153.

    bemused

    @satby:

    Deep Denial Derps. Life “what ifs” scare the hell out of them so they pretend they will be fine and others who aren’t through no fault of their own, well that’s just bad luck or they were doing it all wrong. You’re so right it’s always someone else’s fault when it happens to them.
    No empathy for others, even people they know, is vile self-centeredness.

  154. 154.

    gene108

    @Tripod:

    He became Majority Leader. That is the goal, in and of itself.

    Everything else is just fun and games.

  156. 156.

    Kay

    @Jeffro:

    as saying that some Americans may have to choose between upgrading their phone or getting health care.

    He knows his base. Lower class people who have fancy cell phones are a rage-object for conservatives. They go on and on about it.

    To me it’s a complete misunderstanding of working poor culture. They use their cellphone for everything. Their entire lives are stored on it. Work schedules, direct deposit paychecks, tax refunds, documents. They should have BETTER cell phones than me because I don’t use mine as the sole source of all information and storage.

    I ask for something they hand me the phone. They really took to this like a duck to water, especially the younger ones.

  157. 157.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Jeffro:

    Trump expects everyone to kiss his ass and then maybe, just maybe, he’ll do something for the country (which in Trump’s mind, in most cases, means “doing something for billionaires and thinking it’ll probably trickle down to the plebes.”)

    I think his whole admin is trapped in the St Reagan Maxiumus mythology, everything they do is a half assed impersonation of Reagan.

  158. 158.

    Kropadope

    @Kay:

    To me it’s a complete misunderstanding of working poor culture. They use their cellphone for everything.

    It’s almost like the republicans don’t want the poor to have the necessities of living in modern society. You’re at a huge disadvantage with respect to work and other facets of life without at least some internet capable device. Home internet is expensive.

    Next you’ll be telling me people want to see the doctor so a splinter doesn’t put them out of work forever.

  159. 159.

    Barbara

    @Jeffro: The people who might actually do that — trade health care for a newer phone or a better data plan — are the people that insurers desperately want in the pool because they are disproportionately (WAY disproportionately) young and healthy.

  161. 161.

    Eric S.

    Life has been busy for me for the past 6 months. I changed jobs and am very busy, I broke up with my gf of 6 years and I was preparing for and have now had shoulder surgery. It’s been 7 days since surgery and I’ve been sitting at home convalescent. The full reality of, the full shame, the full ANGER at this so called president has finally sunk in to my being. Not that I didn’t have those feelings before but with little else to occupy my mind it has before more prevalent.

  162. 162.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Kropadope:

    Next you’ll be telling me people want to see the doctor so a splinter doesn’t put them out of work forever.

    I got a splinter deep in my knee once. I got blood poisoning from it.

  163. 163.

    rikyrah

    @Patricia Kayden:

    @Kay: Do normal people consider separating parents from children as a means to deport the parents? That’s what Kelly is considering. Sounds like the plot of Sophie’s Choice.

    While reading Kay’s post, I was about to post that that wasn’t even the most horrible thing he said.

    How anyone, who isn’t a complete sociopath, could purse their lips to try and justify separating children from parents…

    DO.NOT.ASK.ME.TO.UNDERSTAND.THIS!!

  164. 164.

    Elizabelle

    Chaffetz’s idiotic comment is actually a great topic. He is completely divorced from the reality of actual working/poor people, who depend on internet-based phones for their lives and ACCESS TO JOBS.

    Now, in addition to sporting pink hats (summerweight, maybe), we can hold our cellphones up too.

    Can you hear us now, fucking Jason Chaffetz?

  165. 165.

    bemused

    @danielx:

    The only way anyone would take GOP health care “solutions” seriously is if they gave up their current health care coverage and signed on to Ryandon’tcare.

    I believe it was the year that the crowd of teaparty candidates won seats in the House and during their orientations that one new legislator had a freakout that getting he and his family on government health care coverage would not be immediate but take few weeks or a month, iirc. I don’t remember his name but now I wonder if he is still in office. It’s probably a very safe bet guessing how he ever voted on health care coverage or any other safety net issues.

  166. 166.

    Elizabelle

    @Eric S.: I hope your recovery goes smoothly. Hugs on all the changes you’ve been through. I hope you like, and feel fulfilled by, the job.

  168. 168.

    satby

    @Elizabelle: Oh, thank you. I’m just one of probably millions though, and I’m willing to speak to that when others often do accept the blame for circumstances beyond their control and are ashamed that they didn’t “do more”.

    Industries change, the economy changes, jobs become obsolete or are sent to lower cost countries. Even looking nationwide, at my age I got no offers. That’s a societal problem, not a personal one that Martin and other commenters have noted. But until people not only understand that AND vote like it will affect them personally, we’re going to cycle through the same bullshit. Healthcare is the leading fight, but it’s only the start.

  169. 169.

    Kropadope

    @OzarkHillbilly: OMG, that exact thing happened to my friend (foot though). I had to convince him to go to the hospital (and stay there), sign up for Masshealth, and get treated. I had an argument about it with a Libertarian friend of mine who was saying the state shouldn’t help him. I said it’s relatively cheap to treat and the principle party is of more help to himself and society with two legs (we later found out it was more a life/death situation).

    One of the three people in this story has since become a yuge Trump fan. Anyone care to guess?

  171. 171.

    aimai

    @Anne Laurie: Its a terrible cartoon. Nearly indecipherable. Trump is holding up Nixon’s fingers. That much is clear. But since the Elephant/GOP is still very much in charge of the country “I’ll take it from here” goes way too easy on them, whether its a bull or a cow.

  175. 175.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @satby:

    Even looking nationwide, at my age I got no offers.

    I got laid off from my last regular job at the ripe old age of 55, and it was specifically due to my age (not that I could ever prove that). Truth is, I was in so much daily pain that long before I got laid off I told my wife I thought it was my last dance.

    @Kropadope: The # of simple little health problems that can end up in serious impairment or death are as infinite as the # of illnesses humans are subject to.

  176. 176.

    satby

    @Eric S.: Best wishes for a good recovery from all of that Eric! Three f life’s most traumatic events in one year, but if things do come in threes you should have smooth or a while.

  177. 177.

    rikyrah

    @Kay:

    To me it’s a complete misunderstanding of working poor culture. They use their cellphone for everything. Their entire lives are stored on it. Work schedules, direct deposit paychecks, tax refunds, documents. They should have BETTER cell phones than me because I don’t use mine as the sole source of all information and storage.

    How do you think they get access to the internet? It’s not because they have wifi at home. It’s the phone.

  179. 179.

    Aleta

    Medicine is based on science, thinking hurts and takes too much time. Easier to slash and kill stuff. This ‘hurry up and vote on our plan!’ reminds me of Cheney bush Rumsfeld, no time to talk, it’s off to war. If there’s a crisis they’ll try to rush all kinds of bad stuff through I expect.

  181. 181.

    satby

    @OzarkHillbilly: totally their own fault, they should have foreseen that. There is no self accountability in conservaland.
    Remember how Cheney’s shooting buddy apologized to Cheney for getting in the way of his shotgun?

  182. 182.

    Eric S.

    @Elizabelle:
    @satby:

    Thank you. Despite some long hours I am enjoying the new job. And while I can honestly say the ex was one of the best things to have happened to me it had become toxic in many ways. I’m happier now than I’ve been in a few years. No doubt therapy and better living through chemistry is contributing.

    The shoulder won’t be 100% sports ready for a full year but hopefully I’ll be able to resume running in the next 60 days. I want to do at least 1 half marathon this coming Fall.

  183. 183.

    Elizabelle

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Work schedule bidding. Indeed.

    Thinking on how Lindsey Graham had an oldstyle clamshell cell phone. He can afford to get away with that. Others can’t. He’s got a staff to look out for him. (And government-paid healthcare, pension, benefits ….)

    from Kay:

    He knows his base. Lower class people who have fancy cell phones are a rage-object for conservatives. They go on and on about it.

    To me it’s a complete misunderstanding of working poor culture. They use their cellphone for everything.

    I think we need to push back more at some of these conservative tropes. Some people accept them without thinking harder, and if you explained it to them they would …. move on to another conservative rage-object, no doubt. But you might have schooled them on this one.

    Also, FWIW, just about every smartphone today looks “fancy.” I see very affordable ones in Kroger. Snazzy. And cheap.

    UNLIKE HEALTHCARE, Jason Fucking Chaffetz. Apples and oranges, dude. (Also found in Kroger.)

  184. 184.

    Elizabelle

    @rikyrah: I love that my T-Mobile phone plan has free tethering. LIfesaver in some environments, when I need to access the iPad.

  185. 185.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @TriassicSands:

    Ceci n’est pas mon nym wasn’t referring to Krugman’s photo, but to the photo of Trump shown in the linked Krugman column.

  187. 187.

    TriassicSands

    @amk:
    @aimai:
    It is a bull. That could be a reference to Professor Frankfurt, who argued that Trump is not a liar, but rather a “bullshitter,” which is much worse than being a liar. If you aren’t familiar with his argument just search for Harry Frankfurt + Trump + bullsh*t.

    Riding backward is probably just a sign of incompetence, but it could also be Trump looking to the past and hoping to take us all there.

    Are the Republicans really in charge? Sort of. But it has become the Trump show; he dominates the news; constantly spews nonsense about policies he knows nothing substantive about; and ultimately does have a veto if he doesn’t like something.

    I don’t expect Trump to veto Republican bills. He muttered supportive words about transgender kids during the campaign and the second he got the word from the Bigot General, he forgot all about what he’d said and took the bigot’s road. This is typical for someone who has almost no substantial deeply-held beliefs of his own. He believes in DJT. Beyond that he doesn’t care. Some transgender kid in Texas who’s getting bullied is not going to bother Trump. If that same kid is beaten to death, Trump will say some carefully scripted words about how wrong that is and five minutes later he’ll have forgotten all about it.

  188. 188.

    TriassicSands

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Thanks. I should have read more carefully. I had just looked at the photo that Krugman uses for his column so that is what I was thinking of.

  190. 190.

    Elizabelle

    I would bet that Republican congresscritters would like to push the poor/working Americans into healthcare provided by MinuteClinics (very limited) and, when you have cancer or something expensive like that — you have bad character and bad luck. Sorry!

    And meanwhile the congresscritters have primo healthcare and paid travel and pensions, etc.

    I think the first step to reforming healthcare should be pushing congressional offices (and the critter him/herself) onto the private market. They’re little entities of 15 employees; break them down by office. In different states and markets. Now, go find a plan.

  191. 191.

    rikyrah

    Why Do Folks Think Ivanka Trump Is Anything but a Filtered Version of Her Dad?

    Michael Arceneaux
    Yesterday 9:00am

    ………………..

    In a Reuters piece titled, “Behind Scenes, Ivanka Encouraged Trump’s Change of Tone: Sources,” we are once again subjected to the fable about daughter dearest being the calmer, moderate voice in 45’s inner circle. Reuters reporters Steve Holland and John Walcott note that per a senior White House official, during a brainstorming session in the Oval Office Sunday, it was Ivanka who assisted her father in alleviating concerns about his temperament and whether he could govern effectively.

    The source explained:

    He had a lot of voices around him giving him ideas and suggestions that he incorporated, but he really set out to achieve that optimistic tone and that was something she was supportive of. She encouraged him to do that.

    ………………………………………….

    While it’s totally plausible to believe that Ivanka give her father a few tips, the problem lies in the clear intent behind this story.

    It boggles the mind how she successfully manages to get outlets to repeatedly write stories about her as if she is some liberal, despite no evidence to support such categorization.

    There are so many generous reports that claim Ivanka had spoken like a Democrat on the campaign trial—including at the Republican National Convention. Still, saying that women deserve maternity leave and that child care matters doesn’t make you a progressive. Neither does vacationing with a rich Democrat, as she and her power-hungry misclassified husband, Jared Kushner, have done recently. The same goes for giving money to Democratic candidates. After all, her father said he gave to both Democrats and Republicans because as a businessman, it’s smart to have friends on both sides.

    These days, if you don’t hate people having health care, don’t hang out with white supremacists, and don’t complain about there being a BET Awards and not a WET Awards, some might proclaim that you sound like a Democrat. Not all of us share these low expectations, though. Ivanka herself said that she doesn’t claim to be a Democrat or a Republican, but that falls in line with most “independents” who are merely people with both political ideologies and commitment issues.

    Yet, without nary a sign of a receipt, Ivanka Trump gets christened liberal or moderate or not dead inside, like her daddy.

  192. 192.

    Barbara

    @Elizabelle: This is true. At one point, I remember reading a snide article about homeless people who somehow afforded cell phones. The reaction in the comments was nearly unanimous: how else could homeless people possibly hope to stay in contact with possible employers, without a fixed address or a landline? The notion that a cell phone or internet service are luxuries shows how out of touch people in Congress are. Indeed, ISTM that what people in non-urban core areas really need are legislators determined to provide 21st century communications infrastructure, instead of bowing time and again to Verizon. Imagine if that had been what legislators did in the 1930s when it came to rural electrification. They probably still wouldn’t have electricity. Imagine, we could have greater in-country outsourcing and telecommuting if, you know, you could actually get something better than dial up.

  194. 194.

    Elizabelle

    @Barbara: Great point. You know you’re in a forward-thinking community when they’re providing digital access to all. Affordable or free. It is a dividing line.

    Chaffetz’s remarks are emblamatic of what a bubble the Republican political class lives in. Make their ignorance apparent to all.

    We deserve more realistic public servants.

  195. 195.

    Aleta

    Voters want more job oppportunites, higher pay? That doesn’t happen so much if a person is out sick a lot, doesn’t have good preventative care, doesn’t have support for mental illness, or support for relatives with disabilities.

    Good health care can’t be separated from getting hired and staying employed, and we need to yell about that.

  196. 196.

    WereBear

    @Kay: I ask for something they hand me the phone. They really took to this like a duck to water, especially the younger ones.

    And they had to: such as our niece, with college loans and working for a non-profit, for whom this is the only computer, web portal, email service, and social media she can afford.

    I still run into stupidly arrogant people who claim “I don’t have a cell phone!” and fold their arms and look at me like they are something special.

    I guess if that is they only way you can become special…

  197. 197.

    TriassicSands

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    The # of simple little health problems that can end up in serious impairment or death are as infinite as the # of illnesses humans are subject to.

    Another problem —
    A number of years ago one of my cats developed a problem with her ears and dew claws. Eventually, we ended up at a veterinary dermatologist who diagnosed her problem as an uncommon autoimmune disease. While waiting for him to biopsy the skin, I went to a local branch library and looked up the disease, which I’d never heard of before. An hour later, I was exhausted after having learned about a host of new and truly horrible diseases, most of which could afflict humans as well as cats. It drove home the point that we go through life mostly unaware of all the uncommon and even rare diseases that exist and can ruin and sometimes end lives. It’s difficult to be more screwed than you are if you get some horrible orphan disease with no cure and very little research being done because so few people get it.

  199. 199.

    WereBear

    @satby: Even looking nationwide, at my age I got no offers.

    And that, too, is health care related. If Medicare is not destroyed and you get on it: suddenly you are employable again! Happened to my MIL.

  200. 200.

    hovercraft

    @Hal:

    How much you want to bet that all that applause Obama received in New York City set Trump off. I truly believe Trump is deeply envious and jealous of Obama. Not to mention the white supremacist in him hates being inferior to a black man.

    All of it Katie, Twiltler saw the respect, admiration and love that Obama got, and thought I want a piece of that. For all his supposed wealth and celebrity he has never got the respect he thinks he deserves. This is a man who refuses to acknowledge that what he has he’s gotten because of Daddy and his ability to con people out of their money, in his head he started off with nothing, all his failures are because people failed him, and him screwing them is their fault. Obama is currently the biggest tenant in Twitlers universe, he’s living in Twitlers head rent free. He doesn’t get that Obama was a “celebrity” president, because he was cool, good looking, athletic, young, and hand the wife and family to go with it, he could play ball and sing and make hip cultural references that confused the olds and white people. It wasn’t the job that made him cool and popular, it was who he was, it started with a speech,(he wrote himself), but the more we learned and got to know him the more we admired him, his story, his journey, his work ethic, his values, he is a role model. People may aspire to have Twitlers “money”, but very few admire the man himself or his values, or want to be like him.
    Like so many of his fans he thought that since president blackety black did it and was admired the world over, he could do it and get the same result.Turns out, Obama did actually go to Columbia and Harvard, and he did so without a daddy to buy his way in, and he took the opportunity to actually learn something. If nothing else he learned that it takes focus and hard work to achieve your goals. Who knew being president was more than adoring crowds, fawning interviews and signing ceremonies.

  201. 201.

    WereBear

    @Elizabelle: My new position requires more travel, some of it to remote areas, so I bumped up my plan so I could put cellular on my iPad.

    It’s not always there, but the odds jumped incredibly compared to finding wifi.

  203. 203.

    rikyrah

    @hovercraft:

    Like so many of his fans he thought that since president blackety black did it and was admired the world over, he could do it and get the same result.

    This this a thousand times this.

  204. 204.

    Aleta

    @NotMax: Didn’t the US military in the past require women to wear heels for dress uniform? I just looked this up, to see if it’s true now, but the articles that floated to the top were rightwing websites complaining about ROTC making women wear heels. I stopped myself from looking. “Early intervention to prevent headaches may save a life.”

  208. 208.

    No One You Know

    @SFAW: My signature line at my first real job was “Send lawyers, guns, and VAXmail” … way back then.

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