Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

There are no moderate republicans – only extremists and cowards.

Roe is not about choice. It is about freedom.

“When somebody takes the time to draw up a playbook, they’re gonna use it.”

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

the 10% who apparently lack object permanence

America is going up in flames. The NYTimes fawns over MAGA celebrities. No longer a real newspaper.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

The desire to stay informed is directly at odds with the need to not be constantly enraged.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

“Facilitate” is an active verb, not a weasel word.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

“I was told there would be no fact checking.”

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

Those who are easily outraged are easily manipulated.

One way or another, he’s a liar.

DeSantis transforming Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

We can’t confuse what’s necessary to win elections with the policies that we want to implement when we do.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

Stamping your little feets and demanding that they see how important you are? Not working anymore.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The “burn-it-down” people are good with that until they become part of the kindling.

You are here: Home / Politics / Domestic Politics / Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Snow (Job) Day?

Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Snow (Job) Day?

by | 202 Comments

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Not sure how much of DC will be shut down, so this next may or may not be postponed:

Here in the Boston exurbs, the weatherpersons are predicting somewhere between a foot and two feet of snow; I’m selfishly hoping the snow/sleet line doesn’t get this far north, because I’d rather move two feet of dry fluffy stuff than ten inches of frozen sludge…

Apart from March Snowmaggedon Madness (and you Left Coasters rolling your eyes), what’s on the agenda for the day?


 

And finally, happy news for us Washington Post subscribers — the Mad Bitcher is taking his talents elsewhere:

Reader Interactions

202Comments

  6. 6.

    PsiFighter37

    I honestly wonder how many people are actually leaving kind words for Cillizza. I hope it’s close to zero. That man is a fucking tool…basically was as bad as Jake Tapper was before Tapper magically grew some balls.

  10. 10.

    ThresherK

    WaPo’s loss is CNN’s…loss.

    Spousal ThresherK’s work was precancelled yesterday afternoon, so no need for her to set the alarm even.

  11. 11.

    Rosalita

    Pizza party and bowling? Is that for real?

    Working at home in CT today. I’m with you Anne Laurie, grateful for fluffy versus frozen concrete.

  13. 13.

    zach

    I’m all for hyping contributions of 2nd generation immigrants to science, but it’s FAR MORE NOTABLE that, apparently, developing a computational tool to model drug binding to intrinsically disordered proteins is now a sexy enough project to get recognized in a popular science competition!

  15. 15.

    prob50

    ‘Morning all. As per usual couldn’t sleep, so went out for some early a.m. fast food. Super foggy out here in coastal area of L.A., but nothing to really bitch about compared to East Coast heavy snow. Fog required extra careful auto attention and navigation, but I managed to get my pollo & avocado bowl home safely. Hoping to hold indigestion from same to minimum.

  16. 16.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    Cilizza’s move is just another example of how there is no accountability in the Village. CNN just can’t help itself.

    We have a pair of Northern Flickers regularly in the backyard. It’s hysterical watching them try to cram onto suet feeders designed for Downies.

  17. 17.

    bystander

    I only wish Moanin’ Joe would follow Chris to CNN. Then AL’s pal Joy could take over. In my dreams.

  18. 18.

    p.a.

    @Rosalita: yahhh here in central RI 50% snow then 50% rain. Snow 2″-4″/ hour. Gotta get at it before the changeover. Not looking forward to the plow dam at the end of the driveway.

  19. 19.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Also, to all of you northeasters whining about the coming storm, I give you a 4 year old Siberian girl who walked 5 miles thru snow as much as chest deep and temps as low as -29F to get help for her dying grandmother.

    What a bunch of pansies….

    But than again, she is a Siberian.

  22. 22.

    Elizabelle

    Good morning, all.

    Cillizza gone, to a network I never watch? Sweet! He could be on Fox, for all I will see him again. CNN. Hope Chris has boned up on the political ramifications of missing airplanes and blondes.

    Cillizza to CNN. Making the WaPost even better.

  23. 23.

    prob50

    Science Talent Search: On bright side more ‘Murican kids probably know for a fact that Fred Flintstone drove a dinosaur powered crane every day down at the quarry he worked at.

  25. 25.

    MJS

    That comic is one of the most depressing things I’ve ever read. I literally couldn’t make it to the end. We are all so royally screwed.

  30. 30.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @debbie: I thought about posting it to some ridiculous decimal place (maybe the thousandth?) but I was too lazy to google it.

  31. 31.

    prob50

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    I thought about posting it to some ridiculous decimal place (maybe the thousandth?) but I was too lazy to google it.

    So no Science Bowl medal for you then.

  32. 32.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @prob50: Depending on the visibility, I may try the Getty this afternoon, I want to try to get a picture of UCLA with DTLA in the background. Last time, UCLA came out great but the haze was too bad to see downtown very well.

  33. 33.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @debbie: Welcome to Trump’s Ameri…. Ooopps, I mean Putin’s Russia: “How dare you not foresee the death of your mother!”

  34. 34.

    Elizabelle

    @p.a.: Since I don’t watch CNN (literally): what attempts to rise? Asking out of sheer curiosity.

    Have you all noticed virtually no magazine covers with Trump on newstands? I have started to notice that, in Virginia. Suspect he may not sell.

    Of course, the weirder supermarket tabloids are still slagging Hillary. (Think I saw a Hillary and BRIBERY headline on one of them.)

  36. 36.

    Elizabelle

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Love your pics with Mt. San Antonio (??) with snow? Used to love to stand on the beach at Long Beach and see snow-capped mountains in the distance on a clear day. California is such a beautiful state.

  38. 38.

    cosima

    Here’s a great piece at Vox re: how far to move to the left. Plenty of parallels to be drawn in other countries if the US is looking for metrics by which to measure the success of such a move.

    It’s a conversation that I have here fairly regularly when I mix with folk who want to talk politics (which is, thankfully, not often) — socialism, how to define it, is it possible in the US, etc. As I told my oldest over & over when she was in thrall to the Wilmer propaganda, there’s the world we wish we live in, and the world that we do live in, and in the US those two worlds have never been further apart than they are now (which was quite apparent in the run-up to November).

    http://www.vox.com/world/2017/3/13/14698812/bernie-trump-corbyn-left-wing-populism

  40. 40.

    prob50

    @Elizabelle:

    California is such a beautiful state.

    Yeah, it is. Lucky and glad to be here. Parents moved us out here from CT when I was 9. Most of my memories of CT winter/spring are runny nose/freezing toes related.

  41. 41.

    XTPD

    Hopefully Lord Shafer and Rich Lowry will join Cillizza and Politico can become fully readable for once.

  42. 42.

    Elizabelle

    @OzarkHillbilly: No doubt. They’re made for each other.

    ETA: liked your photos on Sunday garden thread. Thinking you could also be described as “Man about Missouri” and “Poco whisperer.”

  43. 43.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Elizabelle: Yup, that’s Mt. San Antonio; I’ve got a few with Mt. San Antonio and San Gregornio. I still need to work on the pic that I linked to yesterday, in trying to get rid of the haze the color kind of sucked.

  44. 44.

    p.a.

    @Elizabelle: They’ve actually called lies ‘misstatements of fact’, ‘untruths’ maybe (in chyrons) ‘lies’: admittedly small victories, but it’s something. I only see CNN at the Y gym so the sound is off, but the banners, scrolls, headlines and segment titles are clearly anti-tRump. Well, maybe saying they are pro-Reality is more accurate. Don’t know if CNN engages in the ‘white nationalist’ instead of white supremacist b.s.

  47. 47.

    p.a.

    @prob50: When I perfect my time machine job 1 is to go back and convince my Ity grandparents to go to Cali instead of New England. “See… see… it even sounds Italian! Vada. Vada.”

    ETA: I know… messing with the timeline, wiping myself out of existence… blah blah…

  49. 49.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Donald Trump’s administration is considering a military proposal that would designate various undeclared battlefields worldwide to be “temporary areas of active hostility”, the Guardian has learned. If approved, the Pentagon-proposed measure would give military commanders the same latitude to launch strikes, raids and campaigns against enemy forces for up to six months that they possess in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria.

    The proposal would in effect unravel a highly controversial bureaucratic structure for launching lethal assaults, such as drone strikes and counter-terrorism raids, set up by Barack Obama’s White House.

    Under Obama’s structure, known as the Presidential Policy Guidance (PPG), the president and his counter-terrorism adviser at the National Security Council played a substantial role in approving life-or-death strikes on suspected terrorists on undeclared battlefields such as Yemen, Pakistan and Somalia. The Pentagon’s proposal would push those authorities down to military commanders during the 180-day lifespan of the temporary designations, according to an administration official familiar with the proposals, who described Obama’s PPG as, functionally, a dead letter. Accordingly, the proposal would lower a threshold for ensuring the safety of civilians in such strikes, from a “near certainty” that civilians would not be harmed to “reasonable certainty”, similar to the standard on official battlefields.

    It is unclear from the proposal, described by an administration official, how many countries would be designated temporary zones of active hostility. It is similarly uncertain how such designation would square with the War Powers Resolution, a much-eroded 1973 law that permits presidents to launch military hostilities for 60 days before needing congressional approval.

    Gee, what could go wrong?

  51. 51.

    Kay

    Yeah, I know this isn’t generous and it isn’t kind, but 68% of this county voted for Trump. How much time and energy am I supposed to donate to securing access to health care for people who voted overwhelmingly against the Medicaid program half of them are relying on?

    I had a plan for how they would retain Medicaid coverage. Hillary Clinton. They went out of their way to defeat my plan including making up insane stories about Clinton that most of them believed and at the same time ignoring all negative input on Donald Trump.

    I don’t have a Plan B and Donald Trump doesn’t either. They’re on their own. I have a lot of sympathy for their children who may lose Medicaid coverage when this is all said and done, but the adults who voted for Trump? They VOTED for this. They should get it.

  53. 53.

    Elizabelle

    @p.a.: Props where due. Baby steps.

    We couldn’t have a Trump without a compleat failure on the part of major media. They are complicit. They need to wear that SNL perfume too.

  57. 57.

    efgoldman

    @Mustang Bobby:

    As for Chris Cillizza splitting for CNN: Don’t the door hit you on the way out.

    Yeahbut: Based on what we’ve seen so far, Amber Philips already has the broderism bullshit down pat.

  58. 58.

    satby

    Good morning! I’m waiting to hear if I have to drive to Lexington, KY tomorrow (and back) to go get my car from #2 son. Dreading the 10-11 hour round trip, but I need my car and he’s finally working and getting OT every weekend. Politics-wise, what’s there to say? It’s a train wreck and all NPR is hawking is increased hiring projections And Wall Street joy at reduced regulations.

  59. 59.

    efgoldman

    @p.a.:

    yahhh here in central RI 50% snow then 50% rain

    Who’s forecast you looking at? Wunderground says we’re still under a blizzard warning from 800am

    ETA: Based on my across the street neighbor’s flag, wind has REALLY picked up from nothing since 700.

  60. 60.

    Betty Cracker

    @Elizabelle: That was my reaction too; the thought that a minuscule fraction of my WaPo subscription was feathering Cillizza’s foul nest always stuck in my craw. Good riddance to bad rubbish!

  61. 61.

    Kay

    I sometimes act as a guardian for people with serious mental illness. Those people have family members. Severe life-long illness is life-changing not just for the person who is disabled but for the entire family. It affects their capacity to earn because an enormous amount of time and energy goes into caring for the disabled family member.

    Whole families are poor and will stay poor. I converse with these people. Have years-long relationships with the whole family. I like many of them, even most of them. Many of them voted for Donald Trump and Donald Trump will DIRECTLY harm them. So how much unpaid work am I supposed to put in protecting them from this threat THEY voted for?

    I never went for the “burn it down” Lefty view because I’m “conservative” personally- I don’t like all the disorder and I think “moving fast and breaking things” is a luxury and risk-taking the vast majority of people can’t afford but times like this I see the attraction. I wouldn’t have broken anything. I’m not big on “breaking” just for the hell of it, but they apparently are. I don’t have as much in common with them as I thought I did because they were bound and goddamned determined to break the structure they rely on so who I am to get in their way?

  63. 63.

    Elizabelle

    @satby: NPR is noticeably timid. Just hear them on news breaks. They announce what Republicans have said, without any context as to whether it’s factual or even of this universe.

    Great Terry Gross/Fresh Air program yesterday; guest host with a guy who studies attentional issues with technology. Many of us now have an attention span less than a goldfish’s. (8 seconds vs. 9)

    ‘Irresistible’ By Design: It’s No Accident You Can’t Stop Looking At The Screen

  67. 67.

    debbie

    @Elizabelle:

    Terri Gross has had a number of excellent interviews, hasn’t she? This speaks to the benefit of longer-form interviews. You really find out so much more.

  68. 68.

    Elizabelle

    @Kay:

    all the disorder and I think “moving fast and breaking things” is a luxury and risk-taking the vast majority of people can’t afford

    They know they can’t afford that either. It’s why they ignored the possibility Trump would actually DO what he said he would. They just explain away what they don’t like about Trump, and glom on to any lie about Hillary.

    Education, particularly through hard experience, is expensive. They are about to learn that.

  73. 73.

    efgoldman

    @Baud:

    She’ll do it, just to show you up

    Fine with me.
    IF the retired Marine across the street (and his lovely wife) hasn’t gone to Florida, and IF his snow blower is working (he hasn’t taken it out at all this winter) he’ll do everybody’s driveway on the street.
    Once upon a time, in ancient days, teenage kids carrying shovels would knock on the door to make some ca$h. Those days are gone, gone, gone.

  74. 74.

    efgoldman

    @raven:

    No they didn’t, you know better than that.

    You know how her county in Ohio voted? My what a well-informed dude!

  78. 78.

    Tripod

    @cosima:

    The New Deal is the particular fixation that ideologically rigid white males hang their hat, that and forever accusing the Democratic Party of betrayal.

    80+ years fellas, it’s as relevant as Trump promising to re-activate the Iowa class battleships. Nobody gives a fuck about FDR.

  79. 79.

    Elizabelle

    @Baud: Good to hear. Was not thinking Trump got 68% of the popular vote. He would be even more insufferable.

    I don’t blame Kay for being weary of her neighbors and clients. Nose, meet face.

  81. 81.

    Immanentize

    @Baud: or raven read “country” instead of what Kay wrote which was “county?” I did a double take myself?

  84. 84.

    Tripod

    @Kay:

    Support for an socio-economic safety net – making people secure in their person and place, is a fundamentally conservative position.

  85. 85.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay: Last night the mister insisted on watching the Sanders town hall in WV with Chris Hayes. I’m glad I didn’t have any bricks handy, because I’d be shopping for a new TV this morning. Fool after deluded, gullible fool stood up to relate a tale of woe about the impending loss of the healthcare subsidies they rely on, and every goddamned one of them voted for Trump because he said he’d “bring back the coal jobs.”

    During the program, my husband and I had a conversation that mirrored the arguments that arise here so often, with him expressing sympathy for the people Trump lied to and me pointing out that the ignorant fuckheads have been voting against their own interests for decades, so maybe it’s time to allow Mr. Darwin’s theory to play out. It’s depressing as hell.

    I’m a Democrat, so I will continue to support policies that help the disadvantaged and economically dislocated. But I think we’ll just have to accept the fact that a significant portion of folks located in rural communities are malicious and/or stupid fucks who will fight any attempt to assist them and crawl forward to lick the boots of any demagogue who offers to step on their empty heads.

  86. 86.

    Baud

    @Betty Cracker: I recorded it but have only watched the first 10 minutes of it.

    I hope you pointed out to hubby that the “people Trump lied to” have real victims who saw through Trump’s charade.

  87. 87.

    prob50

    @Rosalita: Naw, Pollo Loco pollo bowls are good, but they ain’t open at 2:30 am, so I did 24 hr. Del Taco instead. Their’s are a serviceable alternative

  89. 89.

    ThresherK

    @Rosalita: Where in CT are you? I’m close enough to Bradley to identify incoming jets by their livery.

    And, foodwise, anywhere in CT worth going for Mexican or Tex/Mex food?

    @NotMax: Aren’t you gonna put on your RayBans after a one-liner like that?

  91. 91.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Baud: My first read was “countRy” and I knew that wasn’t correct. My second read caught my error.

  93. 93.

    debbie

    @Betty Cracker:

    I’m glad I didn’t have any bricks handy

    Ha! I’ve recently read a biography of George Herriman, the creator of Krazy Kat and am now wandering through anthologies of the comic strips. I wasn’t picturing you as Ignatz, but I hope you never become so unhinged that you actually throw that brick. It certainly never did Ignatz much good.

  96. 96.

    Rosalita

    @ThresherK: Western Connecticut, Danbury area. Best mexican food is my friends’ food truck – San Diego style burritos. He lived out there and his goods are the real deal. Nobody else really understands carnitas here

  97. 97.

    satby

    Sort of OT (not to the blizzard discussion): keep those bird feeders filled during the cold and snow. I saw the first robin of spring three days ago when it was in the fifties and the ground had thawed, now it’s about 10° and it’s back to frozen and snow covered. I have high energy suet and black sunflower seeds out and the crowd at the feeders is pretty big.I

    Edited for all the typos

  98. 98.

    p.a.

    @efgoldman: tv12 at 7am. you’re in the snow zone up there ( my impression is u r North Cumby, not Valley Falls ?) so 5 miles and 500 feet altitude can make a difference.

  99. 99.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @raven: It had occurred to me that you were saying a certain percentage of people weren’t voting FOR Trump so much as AGAINST Hillary. Guess I was being to generous, ;-)

  101. 101.

    NotMax

    Fingers and toes crossed that Mr. Cole doesn’t insist in parading his macho bona fides by traipsing out to shovel at the Connecticut place.

    We each in out own way can oraculate on how that will end.

  103. 103.

    prob50

    @Rosalita: I see you answered my question on Post#96 here. Danbury, eh? Had some relatives there, but damned if I can remember which ones. Was a long, long time ago, anyway.

  105. 105.

    philadelphialawyer

    Not sure what the left coasters have to roll their eyes about. Where most of them live, it hardly snows at all. And it seems like we east coasters have to hear about their drought, ad nausium. Worse yet, when it RAINS in LA, that is somehow big news that I am supposed to care about.

  106. 106.

    greennotGreen

    @Betty Cracker: Not just rural areas, but suburban enclaves of the very well-to-do. What they have in common may be that they have limited exposure to “those people” – people of color, immigrants, Muslims – so it’s easy to turn those people into scapegoats and objects to fear. It’s hard for me to believe that so many economically advantaged people will purposefully vote to hurt the less fortunate just to pad their bank accounts. I think they must have other rationalizations.

  107. 107.

    ThresherK

    @debbie: George Herriman!

    How are the kidz today gonna know that comics on paper used to be big enough to see and allowed to be weird enough to be fun? I read enough web comics to not miss the newspapers.

    And to think The Yellow Kid came out ~120 years ago, and drove sales, and R. F. Outcault was pur$ued like an all-star football free agent by Pulitzer and Hearst. Well, it was a nice run.

    Krazy Kat’s gender was never really defined, was it? The RWNJs would have conniptions over that.

  108. 108.

    waysel

    @raven: ‘Count……y, with no ‘r’. I made the same mistake with a Kay post the other day. Did it this time, too, but only for a second.

  109. 109.

    amk

    @greennotGreen: Yup, most of the 50k and above repubs were shocked how their kids voted in a black guy and then doubly shocked when they reelected him. This was a payback, never mind the black guy wasn’t on the ballot.

  110. 110.

    Amir Khalid

    The new Beauty And The Beast still faces an obstacle to being screened in Malaysia. The Film Censorship Board released it for screening with just one teensy little cut: Lefou’s gay-for-Gaston moment. But the Giant Evil Corp. is apparently standing its ground and refusing to show a cut version. Good for the GEC, even if it means I miss out on the film.

  112. 112.

    rikyrah

    Why the White House isn’t sharing health care numbers of its own
    03/14/17 08:41 AM—UPDATED 03/14/17 08:58 AM
    By Steve Benen

    ……………………….
    The answer, according to this interesting Politico report, is that Team Trump’s numbers are actually worse.

    A White House analysis of the GOP plan to repeal and replace Obamacare shows even steeper coverage losses than the projections by the Congressional Budget Office, according to a document viewed by POLITICO on Monday.

    The executive branch analysis forecast that 26 million people would lose coverage over the next decade, versus the 24 million CBO estimates.

    t’s worth noting that the White House insists that the Politico piece is misleading. According to Sean Spicer, the report in question is real, but it was an administration effort to project what the Congressional Budget Office was likely to conclude, ahead of the CBO score’s release. In other words, we’re supposed to believe this document was the White House’s best guess as to what the CBO would say – and officials were pretty close.

    Is Team Trump’s pushback true? I have no idea, but given recent history, these folks clearly haven’t earned the benefit of the doubt. There is, however, good reason for skepticism about the White House’s line. Indeed, we’re left with three possibilities:

    1. The White House is lying and its internal assessment really did show the ranks of the uninsured growing by 26 million people.

    2. The White House has a different set of numbers that it doesn’t want the public to see (which would suggest the findings are equally embarrassing for supporters of the Republican plan).

    3. The White House is so indifferent towards the substance of this debate that it didn’t bother to put together its own figures.

    So, Team Trump, which is it?

  113. 113.

    prob50

    @philadelphialawyer:

    Not sure what the left coasters have to roll their eyes about. Where most of them live, it hardly snows at all. And it seems like we east coasters have to hear about their drought, ad nausium. Worse yet, when it RAINS in LA, that is somehow big news that I am supposed to care about.

    Hey, nobody is requiring you give a sh*t about our weather, just exchanging info with others. It’s not like we’re asking or inviting you to move here. Really, feel free to savor your miserable slush and we’ll decry our devastating droughts and revel in our occasional rains.

  114. 114.

    ThresherK

    @Rosalita: I’m never in Danbury to speak of, but if I’m around during lunchtime, I’ll ask about the food truck. It’s good to know folks who’ve been places, cos as a lifelong Nutmegger I don’t pretend to know Mexican food. Maple syrup, OTOH…

  115. 115.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Elizabelle:

    Saw Kedi this weekend. Wonderful movie, and I’m not even a cat person. Documentary about the street cats of Istanbul and their people.

    We did too. Recommended respite from the general awfulness of news.

  117. 117.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @greennotGreen:

    It’s hard for me to believe that so many economically advantaged people will purposefully vote to hurt the less fortunate just to pad their bank accounts. I think they must have other rationalizations.

    No, no… They’re just raging assholes.

  118. 118.

    danielx

    @Betty Cracker:

    …and me pointing out that the ignorant fuckheads have been voting against their own interests for decades, so maybe it’s time to allow Mr. Darwin’s theory to play out.

    This, times a hundred.

    Do I have compassion for people who are going to die in consequence of their votes to take away their own medical care?

    Yes.

    Do I have sympathy towards them?

    Not a damn bit.

    Do I empathize with them?

    Is this even a question?

  119. 119.

    rikyrah

    Official report exposes GOP health care promises as falsehoods
    03/14/17 08:00 AM
    By Steve Benen

    Let’s review the top eight most brazen Republican falsehoods exposed by the CBO’s report.

    1. Donald Trump vowed, “We’re going to have insurance for everybody…. Everybody’s going to be taken care of.” That’s now obviously ridiculous, with the Congressional Budget Office concluding that the ranks of the uninsured would grow by 14 million by next year, and that number would expand to 24 million by 2026.

    2. Trump said, “I’m not going to cut Medicare or Medicaid.” As the CBO score makes clear, the Republicans’ American Health Care Act would gut Medicaid, effectively ending the program as we know it.

    3. Trump promised the Republican plan would cover consumers with “much lower deductibles.” While the CBO report points to a range of cost changes, based largely on age, it also found millions of Americans would pay more for care.

    4. Paul Ryan’s official Q&A on his health plan asks, “Won’t millions of Americans lose their health insurance because of your plan?” Ryan then answers his own question, “No.” Some may want to have a semantics argument about the meaning of the word “lose,” but we’re looking at a dynamic in which many consumers have insurance, want insurance, but will no longer be able to afford insurance. When they’re forced to go without, they have, in practical terms, lost their coverage.

    5. HHS Secretary Tom Price vowed that “nobody will be worse off financially” as a result of the Republican plan. So much for that idea.

    6. Price also said the GOP plan “will, in fact, cover more individuals than are currently covered.” The CBO report obviously points in the opposite direction.

    7. Practically every Republican official involved in the process insists the Affordable Care Act is currently imploding. That’s not what the Congressional Budget Office found.

    8. Trump said his approach to health care would “end [the] opioid epidemic in America” and “dramatically expand access to treatment slots.” The CBO didn’t specify exactly how many Americans would lose access to addiction treatment, but it nevertheless made clear that the Republican plan would make this national crisis worse.

  121. 121.

    greennotGreen

    @Kay: BTW, in my rural county slightly over 71% of the vote went for Trump. I’m sure Trump(don’t)care will do a lot for the opioid and meth addiction that plagues the county’s residents.

  122. 122.

    rikyrah

    uh huh
    uh huh

    * White House: “Following MSNBC’s report over questions about whether President Donald Trump has donated his paycheck, Press Secretary Sean Spicer asserted during a White House briefing Monday, ‘the president’s intention right now is to donate his salary at the end of the year.

  123. 123.

    Another Scott

    The federal government in DC is on a 3 hour delay today and some of the area school districts are closed. We went to bed in NoVA with about an inch of wet snow covering stuff, and woke up to the same (with an additional 1/8″ of ice on the trees) – so it seemed to melt/compact as it came down overnight. It doesn’t look too bad and the roads are treated, but we’re getting occasional sleet and the winds are supposed to be 20-25 mph today, so I don’t think we’re out of the woods yet. It looks like they’re cutting the forecast totals for NYC as well. It certainly could have been much, much worse.

    Stay warm and safe, everyone in AL’s and EFG’s neck of the woods.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  124. 124.

    p.a.

    @prob50: this right coaster was fully invested in Cali’s century/millenium drought: I like fruit and veggies, and I like ’em plentiful, inexpensive, and out of (local) season.

  125. 125.

    rikyrah

    Hmmph

    #TrumpLeaks: Two Trump Companies Discovered in Russian Offshore Tax Haven#russiagate #trumprussia #resisthttps://t.co/wlR3XSyXuh

    — Scott Dworkin (@funder) March 14, 2017

  127. 127.

    rikyrah

    Twitter truth

    It would have been great if there had been this level of sympathy for those ruined by the crack cocaine epidemic in the ’80s as for opioids.

    — Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) March 14, 2017

  128. 128.

    Woodrow/Asim

    @Elizabelle: The Enquirer has been openly neck-deep for Trump since the primaries, and clearly was paid well to do it, given the covers post-Election.

  129. 129.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @satby:

    keep those bird feeders filled

    No snow here, but the birds are going through the suet blocks like nobody’s business.

  130. 130.

    PPCLI

    Seung Min Kim‏Verified account
    @seungminkim

    Follow
    More
    I’ll just tweet interesting congressional news. For one, @SenateDems are rolling out a paid family leave proposal tomorrow to pressure Trump

    Finally! Another Trump promise that the Republicans will never support. Make him own it, to counter the ridiculous “He’s kept his promises” spin. Don’t let this one go down the memory hole. Also, make sure the “everyone will be covered for less” Trump remarks about health care get as much exposure as possible.

  131. 131.

    rikyrah

    #Trumpcare ends all the ACA #BlackLungBenefits….but don’t worry, Trump is bringing back #coal jobs….you can’t make this shit up. pic.twitter.com/gbmXg4pAZ7

    — Bruno Amato (@BrunoAmato_1) March 14, 2017

  132. 132.

    NotMax

    @rikyrah

    Purportedly true story about the day the assigned young Marine came into the Oval Office to deliver the first presidential paycheck to him and apologized for the interruption, LBJ (sorry, raven) told him something along the lines of, “Young man, feel free to come by as often as you want to drop these off.”

  133. 133.

    Another Scott

    @satby: I’m putting out about a dozen suet cakes a week now. They used to last several weeks, but the grackles and starlings have been here for a couple of weeks and they just devour the stuff. I’ve been getting the hot-pepper versions to keep the mice and the chipmunks away, and that helped until the starlings (especially) arrived – it’s candy to them!!

    (sigh)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  135. 135.

    NorthLeft12

    I am SUPER excited to join CNN – C. Cilliza

    Who talks like that? This sounds like a MM stereotype of a white, upper middle class teenage girl. Golly, gee whiz! My apologies to teenage girls everywhere.
    Did he have any happy face emoticons following his blurb?

  136. 136.

    debit

    @O. Felix Culpa: We had a couple inches of snow and temp drop over the weekend and I can’t keep my feeders full. Ditto on the suet cakes. Of course, the culprit could be the very pregnant squirrel I keep seeing who somehow keeps defeating my baffle.

  139. 139.

    philadelphialawyer

    @prob50: Well then, what are you “rolling your eyes” about? You don’t care about my weather, and I don’t care about yours. Fair enough. But your weather makes the news here, just as ours does there. And you don’t “revel” in your rain, you bitch and moan about it. Some of y’all even feel the need, for whatever reason, to give breathless, minute by minute “updates” about the state of some dam in East Podunk, as if there was no other place to get that “information,” and as if most of the people here actually care about it. But, whatever, enjoy your droughts, your mudslides, your earthquakes, and so on. I’ll take our nice, temperate East Coast climate.

  141. 141.

    NorthLeft12

    @PPCLI: This is an excellent strategy for the Dems. Bringing up all of Deadbeat Donald’s “progressive” promises from the election, and showing how they mean nothing to him, and even less to the Repubs can at least highlight that he is just another politician who does not live up to any promises that actually help ordinary people.

  142. 142.

    rikyrah

    In individual market, CBO is saying that premiums would go down by 10% over the decade because older people will flee the market. pic.twitter.com/AFDr7kJY9y

    — Margot Sanger-Katz (@sangerkatz) March 13, 2017

    @sangerkatz “Older people will flee the market” is @SpeakerRyan terminology for “This is our last chance and they’ll all be dead by then.”

    — JOBoomr (@JOBoomr) March 13, 2017

  143. 143.

    prob50

    @p.a.:

    this right coaster was fully invested in Cali’s century/millenium drought: I like fruit and veggies, and I like ’em plentiful, inexpensive, and out of (local) season.

    Thanks, although in full honesty many of those fruits and veggies are now coming in from elsewhere because a lot of CA growers have opted to replace basic veggie crops with higher-financial yield almonds. The avocados on the pollo bowl I had this morning most likely came from Mexico.

    Hmmm…wonder how the Trumpwall will affect that?

  145. 145.

    ThresherK

    @NotMax: I’m a native Bridgeporter like Walt Kelly. I knew of this songbook, but not the recordings, and I always “heard” this song in a marching band/campaign rally arrangement.

  147. 147.

    prob50

    @philadelphialawyer: OK by me. I was mostly just poking a little fun at’cha. No serious offense intended.

    BTW, I mostly like the rains, but they do snarl up our auto-centric transportation system, often due to crappy drainage systems. Hmmm….I forgot – you don’t want to hear about it…anywaaayyy.

    Peace.

  149. 149.

    debbie

    @ThresherK:

    Oh, the GOP would be extremely unhappy with Krazy Kat, not to mention the depiction of Officer Pupp. Damn Commies!

    You probably know this, but I didn’t know Herriman passed as a White man his entire life. It gives a whole new tone to the strips.

  151. 151.

    p.a.

    @rikyrah: Well, they do need to recruit a younger voting bloc. What other way would Rethugs do it than sociopathy! Actual cheap bennys for the young, and kill of their current, dying off anyway, supporters!! Quite a ballsy roll of the dice, hoping this gets the young to vote R. (I don’t believe this is a conscious plan, just the result of incompetence and vicious ideology, but the odds are not 0 that this is a conscious plan.)

  153. 153.

    Betty Cracker

    @greennotGreen: Those votes make a lot more sense to me; there’s a logic to a combination of self-interest and self-affirming myths about the poor driving well-off suburbanites into the Republican camp.

    @Baud: I was glad he made the point, but it wasn’t emphasized nearly enough. The thing that made the coal jobs desirable was the pay, which was high thanks to unionization. There’s nothing inherently ennobling about mining and much to discourage folks from pursuing it as a career, including the fact that demand for miners will continue to dry up. Yet those lunkheads keep voting in union-busting plutocrats and expecting them to deliver.

  154. 154.

    MomSense

    @Kay:

    I actually watched that town hall from WV. HOLY FUCKING STUPID PEOPLE BATMAN. I voted for trump but I didn’t think he would actually repeal ObamaCare (even though he said he would every single day). I voted for trump because he promised to bring back our coal mining jobs even though we all know that coal mining is AUTOMATED now and those jobs aren’t coming back. Loved the lady who said she is on 13 different meds and she is only 29. Later in the discussion about how over prescribed opioids are she said she was prescribed pain meds for a broken finger. Why would she accept that prescription and why the hell would she go back to that doctor? I also loved how they kept saying they get high because there is nothing to do where they live.

    Then a guy stands up and talks rightly about how the pharmaceuticals sent millions of opioid pills to a little town and how much money the local pharmacy and drug companies made. He closes it with something that sounded a bit like scripture for personal injury attorneys. ‘I have no problem with people making money but it’s the love of money that ‘s the evil that drives these people’. Audience gave hearty applause for that but they voted for a guy who lives in a guilded penthouse and craps in a gold toilet.

    It’s like these people completely surrendered all responsibility for their own actions and bad decisions and wonder why things are so fucked up. They know their elected officials are lying to them, they vote for them anyway, and then they complain about the result. I really don’t know how you change that kind of entrenched stupidity.

  156. 156.

    p.a.

    @prob50: Oh yes. I remember reading about that now. Supposedly almond tree uniculture is ecologically horrible (most any uniculture is) and extremely water intensive. Lots of these farm issues start with someone wrangling a fed subsidy or price support. Is that true of almonds?

  157. 157.

    Lizzy L

    Best wishes to the folks on the right coast who are dealing with heavy snow! Been there done that, though not over forty years, since I moved to California. Yesterday it was in the high 80s in the Bay Area. Today is supposed to be cooler. I’ve been up since 4:30 am. I’m hoping for a nap later.

    I’m planning to do lots of yard work today, mostly weed whacking and raking. I’ve gotten pretty good with my weed-whacker. The weeds in my back yard are two feet high.

    Happy Pi Day!

  158. 158.

    YellowDog

    I’ve kept my WaPo subscription because of the Trump coverage. Plus, it is fun to see Hyatt’s collection of trolls tie themselves into knots trying to argue that modern conservatism is more than a big grift. Cilliza is addition by subtraction.

  161. 161.

    Shalimar

    @Mustang Bobby: Cillizza is the king of the Bothsiders and Toadies, which makes it a bit hilarious that they finally told him where their clubhouse is.

  162. 162.

    rikyrah

    Quick Takes: What Ryan Likes About the CBO Report
    by Nancy LeTourneau
    March 13, 2017 5:38 PM

    * Speaker Paul Ryan issued a statement about the CBO report that tells us a lot about his priorities.

    This report confirms that the American Health Care Act will lower premiums and improve access to quality, affordable care. CBO also finds that this legislation will provide massive tax relief, dramatically reduce the deficit, and make the most fundamental entitlement reform in more than a generation

    Of course Ryan loves the tax cuts for the wealthy and the fact that their plan decimates a fundamental entitlement program (Medicaid). But because of those massive tax cuts for the wealthy, it merely saves $337 billion over 10 years.

  163. 163.

    ThresherK

    @debbie: I did learn that as a young adult. I also took out tons of those coffee-table comic strip compendiums from the library, and got spoiled reading those histories in the size they were meant to be.

    @Immanentize: Heeheehee.

  165. 165.

    prob50

    @MomSense:

    It’s like these people completely surrendered all responsibility for their own actions and bad decisions and wonder why things are so fucked up

    Well, between resenting Black People, despising ‘Mesicans and fearing Mooslems who has time to consider the consequences of their own choices?

  166. 166.

    Immanentize

    @Luthe: I have tons of
    Cousins in Danbury/Ridgefield area. If you have a meet up there, let me know! Carnitas on me!

  167. 167.

    prob50

    @p.a.:

    Lots of these farm issues start with someone wrangling a fed subsidy or price support. Is that true of almonds?

    Not sure about fed subsidies or price supports, but the water issue is real.

  168. 168.

    MomSense

    @prob50:

    Well, between resenting Black People, despising ‘Mesicans and fearing Mooslems who has time to consider the consequences of their own choices?

    Yup.

  170. 170.

    Kay

    @MomSense:

    “Prescription drugs cost too much so I’ll vote for this lying moron”

    I don’t know- they have NO role in this? I think they do. I don’t dislike or wish harm on these people personally but the idea that I’m going to bust ass going door to door begging them to accept Medicaid should not be part of their Plan B.

    Those assholes in the town halls who show up with a list of anecdotes and don’t even understand that Congress requires a majority? Why are they my job? SOME effort. The same amount of effort they devote to their Facebook pages. Not a big “ask”.

  171. 171.

    geg6

    Against my better judgment, I watched the Wilmer/Hayes WV town hall last night. Jebus, the stupid is strong there. The one miner they had on stage could be the poster boy for cognitive dissonance. And a lot of others were certainly runners-up. They want everyone to get affordable healthcare, they want the rich to pay, they want good steady jobs at high pay and benefits, they want treatment for opioid addiction and punishment for the doctors who over-prescribe and drug companies that foist millions of pills on towns with 400 residents, they want good education for their kids. But they all voted for Trump, even the single Dem pol on stage. And had nothing bad to say about him. The one bright light was the OB-GYN who really was trying to get these people to see how they are being screwed. She was awesome. Wilmer did a lot of shouting and, to his credit, slagging the GOP and big coal and everyone who he should be slagging and did not seem to disparage any Dems that I noticed. But he wasn’t the star of the show, that OB-GYN was, IMHO.

  173. 173.

    Another Scott

    @p.a.: The Wilmer thing was on here some last night, J was watching it. I was listening to music so I didn’t pay much attention – he hits my stabby nerves too much for me to watch.

    It would have been nice if someone would have pointed out that even if coal did somehow “come back”, it wouldn’t be mined in WV and PA and OH and KY, it would be mined out west and in Canada and Australia. Coal is a global commodity (as most commodities are now), and users are always going to chase the cheapest price – especially for something that’s just going to be burned anyway.

    It’s easy to tut-tut and say it’s the voters’ and the non-voters’ fault that Donnie is going to crush them. But we know it’s really not that simple. Rundgren’s honest work is too simplistic (as all songs are), but it has a lot of truth in it. Change is always scary and hard. Someone who promises that things can go back the way they were without any consequences will always have a lot of support. Communities almost never are able to change on their own. The state and the country has to help them to change (education, investment in infrastructure, sensible environmental and tax rules, worker and civil rights protections, etc.).

    Modern mining is very capital intensive. It’s very easy for little towns and poor counties to become “company towns” and people live in fear that if the company fails then they’re doomed, because they’ve seen it before. If Massey didn’t invest in those mines, where would those people be? “Sure, people were killed, and other companies poisoned the rivers, but at least the people had a job.” :-/ When those are the choices, some will make that choice out of desperation.

    The answer isn’t to say that some people are just too stupid, it’s to fight the lies and work to make the economy everywhere more diverse and resilient. It’s a long, hard, expensive slog but the alternative is worse.

    My $0.02.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  174. 174.

    Immanentize

    @raven: like I said, I thought what you wrote — just lucky for me I didn’t reply because I had to get breakfast going right then….

  175. 175.

    rikyrah

    @Kay:

    Yeah, I know this isn’t generous and it isn’t kind, but 68% of this county voted for Trump. How much time and energy am I supposed to donate to securing access to health care for people who voted overwhelmingly against the Medicaid program half of them are relying on?

    Kay,

    I honestly could care less about THEM.

    They are lucky that so many of us are willing to fight for those we know who were smart enough NOT to vote against their own best interests. And, if we succeed, they will benefit.
    BUt, I’m tired of stories about them. That I’m supposed to ‘understand’ their vote.

    No. I don’t.
    No. I won’t.

  177. 177.

    MomSense

    @geg6:

    Word. The OB GYN was the only one in that town hall who had more than three brain cells firing at one time. I don’t know how she stays in that county. She was definitely the hero of that spectacle.

    I was watching it with my 13 year old who put down the book he was reading to roll his eyes at the woman who said they get high because there is nothing to do.

  178. 178.

    Elizabelle

    @MomSense: If there is ever a transcript, I would love to read it. Do not have the patience to watch those critters in action, but would love to hear more about the OB-GYN and skim what the townspeople came up with.

    Reading is more controllable than watching or listening; faster.

  179. 179.

    MomSense

    @Kay:

    I don’t wish harm on them but I would be lying if I said I didn’t dislike them. There are responsibilities that come with citizenship. I was trying to imagine canvassing some of those people. How long would it take to explain the basics of democracy? Would you have to bring a flow chart? Sing the Schoolhouse Rock I’m just a bill sitting on capital hill for them?

  180. 180.

    bemused

    @Kay:

    One guy said he doesn’t know much about politics, DUH! It’s the same for most of them. They just took the Shitler’s promises as serious. I don’t know how people in the 21st century can take any politician at his/her words without questions. Many in that town hall seem to be doing some questioning now but will they remember that the next time around? I’m not confident.

  182. 182.

    Elizabelle

    @MomSense: They’re crabs in a barrel, pulling the rest of us down.

    I suspect their churches — such fonts of Christian spirit — promote the “vote Republican, save the babies!” line. They hear it even if they don’t attend.

    I wonder if they might listen to Obama now, that he’s out of office and no longer such a threat. Some of them have to be sadder, maybe wiser…. I notice how much derision is thrown at Democrats. Watch the casual language. Democrat = loserdom. It’s cultural.

    Overheard a conversation between my hair colorist and another client. They were scoffing at the women’s march (“I don’t need to wear a pink hat to run a business”) and definitely picked up that Democrats were all about bathrooms and trans-rights. They have no idea, apparently, who helped secure the rights and privileges they take for granted. (The Vietnamese immigrant owner of the shop was either absent or totally quiet.) And my colorist is a wonderful person. Leans libertarian, I would guess. Well educated family; no kiddies.

    ETA: I was under a dryer. Think colorist did not realize I could hear every single word.

  184. 184.

    Tripod

    @MomSense:

    I think the best description I read was that addiction gives structure and purpose to an otherwise bleak existence. They have to get the money together, find a dealer, score, get high…. being dope sick a couple of days is the easy part, finding another life’s purpose, especially without changing place, is the hard part.

  185. 185.

    geg6

    @MomSense:

    My John had to leave the room because he was yelling so much at those people that I thought he was going to stroke out. It’s doubly infuriating for us because, in my county just north and over the Mason-Dixon Line from there, so many of those people could be replaced by a lot of our neighbors and acquaintances.

    My county is a strange mix of people. We’re the northern end of the part of Appalachia that runs through Western PA. We’re close to Pittsburgh, so we have a population of young and college-educated people who tend toward Evangelical Christian-lite or Catholic who tend Republican for fiscal and religious reasons. We also have a large number of white high school grads and less than high school grads who mostly make up the working class who in our past would have gone straight from high to the steel mills, but who can’t do that because there are no longer any steel mills. They have been brought up by parents whose lives were decimated when the mills closed and who never got over it and who passed on their resentments and disdain for education to their kids. And there is a gigantic number of elderly retirees. We’ve lost our young to better pastures here for a couple of generations now. Well, the young and educated anyway. Some are coming back (or never leaving) since career opportunities have been improving, especially in the city, and the cost of living here is much lower than city living. The African American population is just 8% and the Asian and Latino populations are so small that it’s not even worth factoring them in. The youngs and the college educated are persuadable. But this county is overrun by the concerns and fears and thus the politics of those olds and the white, high school educated or less working class. They are bigoted, they are stupid and they are terrified because they see it all as a zero sum game that, deep down, they know they are losing.

    I’m sick to death of them.

  186. 186.

    Tripod

    @Another Scott:

    They’re coming for OTR trucking next, but idiot brogressives like Duncan Black keep wishing away the job offs to the cornfield and blaming the Democrats for not kissing enough white male ass.

  187. 187.

    Another Scott

    @Tripod: I don’t read Atrios that way, myself. I think is over-arching view is that life is complicated (self-driving cars aren’t simple), politics isn’t easy (politicians can’t assume they’ll get votes by default) and our choices have consequences (parking rules matter).

    Yeah, Uber and JB Hunt and lots of other companies dearly want to get rid of their drivers, (and Tesla andFord and GM and all the rest want to show that they’re “high-tech” companies by showing they have projects in it,) but Atrios’s simple examples show that 95% or even 99% good enough isn’t good enough for the real world in cities (and maybe other places, too). He’s not sanguine about the threat, he just wants us to think about it, realize that the choices our representatives make matter, and not buy the hype.

    I don’t think Atrios doesn’t recognize that trucking jobs are under threat by driverless technology. But I think he would argue that they’re under threat by lots of other more immediate things (Trump changing rules, taxes, etc.) that are less shiny.

    FWIW.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  188. 188.

    artem1s

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Donald Trump’s administration is considering a military proposal that would designate various undeclared battlefields worldwide to be “temporary areas of active hostility”, the Guardian has learned. If approved, the Pentagon-proposed measure would give military commanders the same latitude to launch strikes, raids and campaigns against enemy forces for up to six months that they possess in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria.

    The proposal would in effect unravel a highly controversial bureaucratic structure for launching lethal assaults, such as drone strikes and counter-terrorism raids, set up by Barack Obama’s White House.

    We’ll meet again
    Don’t know where
    Don’t know when
    But I know we’ll meet again some sunny day
    https://youtu.be/s4VlruVG81w

  189. 189.

    cmorenc

    @Kay:

    Yeah, I know this isn’t generous and it isn’t kind, but 68% of this county voted for Trump

    By relatively empty land mass area, true – if you’ve taken a cross-country flight during relatively clear weather, it’s readily apparent how sparsely populated the land is west of about 100 miles from the Mississippi River is, except for occasional concentrated urban areas such as Denver or the Wasatch Front (Salt Lake City) which are mostly blue-leaning – until you get to California. And most “red” areas east of the Mississippi are relatively rural / small town. The real problem Democrats and progressive “others” have is not whether we have at least modest majority status, but with our concentrated distribution (which makes gerrymandering us easier) and greater susceptibility to fractioning and de-motivation come time to actually vote (“de-motivation” including suppression as well as insufficient inclination for some who personally face few to no actual suppression barriers).

  190. 190.

    PaulW

    Someone abandoned two healthy looking kittens at our library today.

    Friendly as hell, they followed people inside our lobby and had no problem getting picked up or petted.

    We’re checking them for fleas – none so far – and our pet rescue allies have been notified.

    I’ve offered to host them for whatever time is needed before they go up for adoption.

    Since today is Pi Day, I wanna name them Apple and Pecan.

  191. 191.

    PaulW

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Gee, what could go wrong?

    Other than outright Mission Creep, the potential of quagmire and sinking into a regional conflict we’d have no sane reason to be involved with, the increasing likelihood of human rights abuses fighting 20 different brush wars, the proliferation of anti-American forces radicalized entire nations against us… the only thing that can really go wrong is that trump can lose each and every war through mismanagement.

  194. 194.

    glory b

    @Another Scott: How about we go with the alternative that involves helping people who would already vote Dem to get ID and to get to the ever-further-away polling places at election time?

    It seems like it would be easier than having Chris Hayes drag Wilmer to al of these places where he converts maybe three people an hour (only in front of cameras of course).

    By the way, did anyone there at the town hall have the scales drop from their eyes and ask for a Dem party registration card? Or did they just feel sorry for themselves, only to vote republican the next time?

  195. 195.

    West of the Rockies (been a while)

    @philadelphialawyer:

    You ever experience four successive years of drought, counselor? It’s not fun for humans or animals. That podunk dam issue you mentioned could have jeopardized a quarter of a million people. I don’t understand your sneer.

    I feel for you east coasters. I lived in CT for a time and know how miserable winter can be. Good luck and stay well.

  197. 197.

    philadelphialawyer

    @West of the Rockies (been a while):

    After four years, a drought is no no longer news. And your whole region is mostly arid or semi arid anyway.
    As for the dam, BalloonJuice hardly needs to be the go to place for folks in jeopardy to get their local, twenty-times-a-day, disaster info.
    The main point, though, is that OP said you guys were rolling your eyes at our bad weather. And that’s why I am “sneering.” Because you are sneering at us. If you aren’t, then it doesn’t apply to you.

  198. 198.

    philadelphialawyer

    @L&DinSLT: As I said, “most.” Most is not all. Enjoy your snow, which, by the way, I already heard about. Because your weather makes news too. Now go roll your eyes. Or not.

  199. 199.

    J R in WV

    @Kay:

    When you say that 68% of this country voted for Trump, you are far way off away from reality.

    Of the voting citizens, Trump got 46.0955473 percent of the votes. Hillary got 48.2 percent, and the outsiders got around 5%.

    Of the whole US population, the whole 324,118,787 of us, Trump voters are only 19.4310353 percent, at 62,979,636 total. I’m willing to be generous, and call that 20%, which is so far from 68%… well, how far? you are off by more than a factor of 3. Closer to a factor of 4. So your error is over 300%.

    Now I’m fine with feeling desperate, overwhelmed, and outraged. But I’m not fine with making a bad situation 3 times worse than it really is. Trump really got a tiny fraction of the nation to vote for him, which is a great thing.

    Over 80% of the country did NOT vote for the bastard!!!

  200. 200.

    J R in WV

    @J R in WV:

    My bad, Kay was talking about her county in Ohio, and I saw an R where there was no R to be seen. Duh!!

    And all that math, for nuthin’

  201. 201.

    J R in WV

    @Baud:

    When I was a little kid in the mid 1950s, a couple of times a month a big strong looking young man would knock on the front door, and ask if Mom had any chores she needed done for some groceries to feed his family.

    Mom never failed to find some leaves to rake, a ditch to clean, roadside litter to pick up, etc, etc. And after they put in 3 or 4 hours of not-so-heavy labor, she would have a big doubled grocery bag filled to the top with canned goods, dried beans, potatoes, etc. Like a week’s worth of food.

    None of these guys had any extra body fat. They were all coal miners laid off as continuous mining machines and shuttle cars came into the underground mines. Mining employment in WV dropped hugely in the ’50s even as demand for met coal for the steel mills was through the roof.

    Now, there are several factors pushing coal employment down.

    Demand is dropping as natural gas costs are lower than ever.

    Much of what coal is mined is done at giant strip jobs, with huge drag machines removing the overburden. I was on one mine site where it took them 3 years to dig a flat spot big enough to erect their drag line using conventional heavy equipment, giant loaders and trucks. It only takes a handful of men to operate a drag line, and most of them are oilers and maintenance men.

    Much of the best coal in WVa was already mined and run out of here on the trains. Many remaining mines are barely breaking even, and the money to put in a new mine is not there.

    If you wanted to open a big high-employment mine, where would you find enough guys who would pass the mandatory drug tests?

    There aren’t any steel mills in the US that need coking coal to fill blast furnaces. The ones that are left are using arc furnaces to melt old iron and steel into new rails, sheets and tubes. No coal used there.

  202. 202.

    West of the Rockies (been a while)

    @philadelphialawyer:

    So duration of event determines news worthiness? Well, then I suppose we’re done with stories about, for instance, Fukushima. Excellent to know.

Comments are closed.