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You are here: Home / I love you in your big jeans, you give me nice dreams

I love you in your big jeans, you give me nice dreams

by DougJ|  March 29, 20174:58 pm| 191 Comments

This post is in: Green Balloons

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Matt Bai just can’t quit Chris Christie:

Trump needs a guy like Christie to come in and grab the wheel of this careening presidency, and he needs it to happen now.

[…]

But whatever else you want to say about Christie (and I’ve always found him to be a more complicated and gifted politician than his detractors can stand to admit), the man knows how to bring focus to a political operation, and how to advance a governing agenda, and how to balance public bluster with backroom pragmatism.

Chris Christie’s approval rating in New Jersey is nearing single digits. He narrowly avoided time in the clink for his involvement in one of the most widely derided political scandals of our era.

But Matt Bai still loves him. Why weren’t Eliot Spitzer and John Edwards given this post-debacle treatment?

Because they’re democrats, of course.

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Reader Interactions

191Comments

  1. 1.

    ? Martin

    March 29, 2017 at 5:07 pm

    Some people just insist on being bullied.

  2. 2.

    Ocotillo

    March 29, 2017 at 5:08 pm

    Because sexy time? Oh yeah, Newt. IOKIYAR

  3. 3.

    Yarrow

    March 29, 2017 at 5:09 pm

    Trump needs a guy like Christie to come in and grab the wheel of this careening presidency, and he needs it to happen now.

    Our media betters are so desperate for someone, something, anything to fix Trump and his mess. First they were all about The Pivot. It was everywhere they looked, just around the corner–this time it must be The Pivot. But, no. Sadly there hasn’t been a pivot and maybe they’re beginning to realize there won’t be.

    So now it’s on to The Person Who Can Fix This Mess. Is it a bully like Chris Christie? Is it a Centrist Republican (TM)? Maybe Trump will do something super bipartisany like Reach Across The Aisle and bring in a Sensible Democrat (TM).

    None of these things will happen. The media will be so sad.

  4. 4.

    Ocotillo

    March 29, 2017 at 5:10 pm

    Besides, Christie only impacted the lives of the proletariat, Those dems broke the public confidence with their moral failings that only impacted their personal relationships.

  5. 5.

    Roger Moore

    March 29, 2017 at 5:13 pm

    @Yarrow:

    Our media betters are so desperate for someone, something, anything to fix Trump and his mess.

    I can understand this. I want something to come along and fix the mess that is the trump presidency, because it’s clearly doing a lot of damage to our country. I just think the right solution is a bunch of impeachments that result in a sensible Democrat in charge.

  6. 6.

    ruemara

    March 29, 2017 at 5:17 pm

    I’m glad you read these doofai so I don’t have to. Surprised no one has frontpaged Matt Bruenig’s methodical torture of numbers on Medium to come to the conclusion that Trump won thanks to women and people of color. It’s being shared by all the usual liberaltarian suspects of stupidity.

  7. 7.

    zmulls

    March 29, 2017 at 5:17 pm

    Yeah, what they all said. Edwards and Spitzer (and *WEINER*) were all about Teh Sex. Christie just abused his power.

    We get our knational knickers in a twist over the wrong damn things.

  8. 8.

    Baud

    March 29, 2017 at 5:19 pm

    @ruemara: I knew it was your fault.

  9. 9.

    Zelma

    March 29, 2017 at 5:19 pm

    I am from New Jersey and I am counting the days until we say good-bye to Christie. OTOH, I think we would have been much better off had Christie directed the transition. He would have been unlikely to support idiots like Mulvaney, Price, etc. (These are Pence’s people.) And frankly, I would have preferred him to Sessions as AG. For all his failings (and they are manifold), he has some connection with the slightly sane wing of the Republican Party: he is not a climate change denier, he accepted the Medicaid expansion, he is not a member of the Freedom Caucus, he’s not an unreconstructed secessionist, he’s not an idiot, and he has had some experience with governing something (New Jersey is probably ungovernable). And for all these reasons, Trump will never be allowed to turn to him. Also, he sent the Acting Chief of Everything’s daddy to jail. It is dire commentary on the Trump administration that Chris Christie looks good in comparison.

  10. 10.

    Baud

    March 29, 2017 at 5:19 pm

    @Roger Moore:

    I just think the right solution is a bunch of impeachments that result in a sensible Democrat in charge.

    QFT

  11. 11.

    ruemara

    March 29, 2017 at 5:20 pm

    @Roger Moore: Where are the thinkpieces discussing this eminently sensible policy?

    @Baud: I knew something was gonna happen since I got a job that paid money, even if it’s turning out to be a sweatshop. Sorry I broke the universe, everyone.

  12. 12.

    hellslittlestangel

    March 29, 2017 at 5:23 pm

    Right-wingers love powerful men who get away with committing crimes. Except, for some reason, OJ Simpson.

  13. 13.

    Yutsano

    March 29, 2017 at 5:26 pm

    @Zelma:

    he accepted the Medicaid expansion

    I thought he didn’t have a choice there, as there was a veto proof majority that was going to make it law regardless.

    @hellslittlestangel:

    Except, for some reason, OJ Simpson.

    Most of them think he’s innocent.

  14. 14.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    March 29, 2017 at 5:27 pm

    Fantasy:

    , the man knows how to bring focus to a political operation, and how to advance a governing agenda, and how to balance public bluster with backroom pragmatism.

    Reality:

    N.J. credit rating cut for 11th time under Christie
    NorthJersey.com · 1 day ago

    Doin a heck-of-a-job, Brownie Tubby

  15. 15.

    Yarrow

    March 29, 2017 at 5:28 pm

    @Roger Moore: I don’t think the media want the Trump presidency to be fixed because they care about the damage its doing to our country. More like it’s not working for them so it needs to be fixed.

    I just think the right solution is a bunch of impeachments that result in a sensible Democrat in charge.

    YES! Bring it on.

  16. 16.

    gene108

    March 29, 2017 at 5:29 pm

    In of riyrah’s Washington Monthly links, posted today on another thread, one of the authors said basically right-wingers have a tolerance for win-at-all-costs that is not shared by the left.

    Basically, right-wingers are willing to tolerate a lot of malfeasance, if it helps them get what they want.

    The Nixon acolytes take away from Watergate was their boss got caught because of his recording system, therefore cut out the actual recorded documents. This worked to some extent with Iran-Contra, so Reagan was never brought down and only peripheral members of his Administration got hurt. It was turned into a fine art form by Bush, Jr.

  17. 17.

    Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)

    March 29, 2017 at 5:31 pm

    @ruemara: Brocialist/brogressive, not liberaltarian.
    @zmulls: To be Scrupulously Fair, Weiner & Edwards were legitimately sacks-of-shit human beings. Or sacks of shit-shit-vomit-shit, as the case may be.

  18. 18.

    Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)

    March 29, 2017 at 5:32 pm

    @Yutsano: NEGRO PLEASE

  19. 19.

    schrodingers_cat

    March 29, 2017 at 5:33 pm

    @gene108: Our side wants to be goody two shoes and think that compromise with T is desirable. After last week’s win. Really, as I said infants have better instincts of self preservation.

  20. 20.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    March 29, 2017 at 5:33 pm

    @Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD): let’s not be so hard on Weiner.

  21. 21.

    Kay

    March 29, 2017 at 5:35 pm

    Chris Christie is on the drug task force.

    I was reading parts of Jeff Session’s address to school children on opiates. Conservatives aren’t credible on this because their ideology forbids them telling the truth about what actually happened. Huge companies pushed pain pills- they flooded states with them. It was only AFTER that first wave that the addicts turned to heroin. “Drug dealers and criminal gangs across the border” didn’t create this. Pharma execs in nice offices with huge salaries did.

    We watched this happen in these places. They can’t address this problem unless they start telling the truth about it. It’s not at all mystery. There have been state-initiated lawsuits with extensive discovery and prescription drugs are regulated. They have the data. This was about a handful of people in the United States making a fuck-ton of money pushing legal drugs.

  22. 22.

    Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)

    March 29, 2017 at 5:36 pm

    @David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch:

    let’s not be so hard on Weiner

    i see what you did there

  23. 23.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    March 29, 2017 at 5:36 pm

    I’m not sure that Chris Christie can drive so he probably shouldn’t be relied on to “take the wheel”, though he is rather adept at setting out traffic cones.

  24. 24.

    Chris

    March 29, 2017 at 5:36 pm

    I always thought Christie would go far in the Republican Party. He’s got the bullying abrasiveness and fondness for kicking weaker people that made the voter base love Trump, combined with the sort of East Coast “moderate” respectability that the Village yearns for so much – could’ve been Romney and Trump rolled into one.

    Alas, then Hurricane Sandy happened and he became toxic overnight for having accepted help from the Kenyan Usurper.

  25. 25.

    Yarrow

    March 29, 2017 at 5:37 pm

    @schrodingers_cat: Compromise with Trump and the Republicans is stupid and wrong. Dems saying they are open to compromise may not be stupid or wrong. Depends how it’s done.

  26. 26.

    Ridnik Chrome

    March 29, 2017 at 5:39 pm

    @Kay:

    Jeff Session’s address to school children on opiates

    If I had to listen to Jeff Sessions talk, I’d want to be on opiates, too…

  27. 27.

    schrodingers_cat

    March 29, 2017 at 5:40 pm

    @Yarrow: Actually, I was talking about our FPers here and some commenters not elected Dems.

  28. 28.

    geg6

    March 29, 2017 at 5:41 pm

    @Kay:

    Tell it, Kay.

  29. 29.

    different-church-lady

    March 29, 2017 at 5:41 pm

    On the same day two of his accessories get jail time, no less. Brilliant, Matt.

  30. 30.

    Waldo

    March 29, 2017 at 5:41 pm

    Insane but feckless far-right admin vs. sane but competent far-right admin. Tough call.

  31. 31.

    StringOnAStick

    March 29, 2017 at 5:43 pm

    I was talking to a psychologist today, and she noted that she’s had a lot of prior clients come back into therapy thanks to the election, because putting a narcissistic bully in charge re-traumatized the people who grew up with that shit and are now seeing it happening at a national level. She noted that her fellow therapists are seeing this dynamic too. We both noted that the shitgibbon’s followers aren’t the type to go for therapy so it is a skewed sample since a 6 pack or bottle of Jack doesn’t report “therapy” clients.

  32. 32.

    Kay

    March 29, 2017 at 5:43 pm

    @Ridnik Chrome:

    Ha! He sounds oddly old-fashioned, like a 1980’s drug warrior. It’s more sophisticated than that now because it’s better-informed. They know more. It’s treated more as a public health problem. The kids probably know way more than he does.

  33. 33.

    JPL

    March 29, 2017 at 5:43 pm

    @gene108: Winning is the only thing.

  34. 34.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    March 29, 2017 at 5:45 pm

    According to Gallop Trump’s passed both Obama and Clinton’s lows on the approval ratings. So that’s in two months. So yes, unleash the Christi, far be it from us progressives to dissuade the Right on this.

  35. 35.

    hitchhiker

    March 29, 2017 at 5:46 pm

    I’ve always found him to be a more complicated and gifted politician than his detractors can stand to admit

    I just love the little dig in there, don’t you? His detractors “can’t stand to admit” that a guy who failed spectacularly at governing his state is complicated and gifted. See, it’s about us and our dumb determination not to recognize political gifts when we see ’em. Why not just say that you see a complicated, gifted politician and describe what makes that true? Why make it about “his detractors” and their intellectual dishonesty?

    God, I hate these people.

  36. 36.

    Ian G.

    March 29, 2017 at 5:50 pm

    For the record, every time I see a photo of Trump with other men (such as this juxtaposition with the Outlaw Jersey Whale), it’s impossible not to see his hair, his facial expressions, and his skin color as a blaring fucking siren screaming serious mental illness. Am I the only one who feels that way?

  37. 37.

    Kay

    March 29, 2017 at 5:51 pm

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques:

    I love it not just because it makes it harder to pass their horrible agenda but because you know it bugs the shit out of Donald Trump every minute of every day. It must kill him. I don’t think it bothered GWB at all when he was unpopular.

  38. 38.

    StringOnAStick

    March 29, 2017 at 5:52 pm

    @Kay: The opiod epidemic started with legally written prescriptions, just like you said. Perdue Pharmaceuticals has a lot to answer for. I heard a local woman who had lost a son to heroin discuss this on the radio since she is now devoting her life to the addiction crisis. When she told her son’s story, she said that “while he was on the prescription drugs he kept his job and lived a normal life. When he could no longer get those is when he went to heroin.” And yet she still didn’t make the connection; her goal was to crack down on heroin, not to try to help with addiction to prescription painkillers.

    My concern with the screaming about prescription pain killers is that once again we will swing the pendulum to the “prescribe less” side, and people who really need them won’t be able to get a prescription anymore. It’s like pointing people at a heroin dealer and saying “there’s the guy who can help you out”.

  39. 39.

    XTPD

    March 29, 2017 at 5:52 pm

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: Per Nate Cohn, 35% seems to be his non-crisis polling floor. He should breach the Keyes constant by July.

  40. 40.

    Kay

    March 29, 2017 at 5:54 pm

    @hitchhiker:

    You have to love how “the detractors” who live in the state he governs don’t matter at all. They’re all wrong about him.

    It’s the endless search for the manly-man Republican who is also competent. This unicorn won’t die.

  41. 41.

    Brachiator

    March 29, 2017 at 5:55 pm

    But Matt Bai still loves him. Why weren’t Eliot Spitzer and John Edwards given this post-debacle treatment?

    Fuck Eliot Spitzer and John Edwards. I get tired of people trying to find something to salvage in these pieces of shit. Throw Anthony Wiener and his dick picks on this pile as well.

    But fuck Chris Christie a hundred times. And then fuck him some more. The only good thing he ever did was throw Jared Kushner’s dad in jail.

    Matt Bai, who gives a shit.

    ETA: The crazy thing is that with Trump the bar for ethical behavior doesn’t even exist anymore. The bar ain’t low. It got dropped on the ground, rolled through excrement and then thrown in a ditch.

  42. 42.

    Barbara

    March 29, 2017 at 5:57 pm

    @Yarrow: And yet, when a president manages to conduct himself with dignity and without scandal they basically do everything they can to seize on small, silly things and manufacture scandals where none exist. When it comes down to it, the media got exactly what it wanted, a real scandal just about every minute, even if the country did not. Most of them are only pretending to be wringing their hands.

  43. 43.

    Raven

    March 29, 2017 at 5:57 pm

    @StringOnAStick: Will? It’s very difficult now to get schedule 1 prescriptions filled.

  44. 44.

    ruemara

    March 29, 2017 at 5:58 pm

    @Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD): Don’t correct me. You call it as you please, I call it as I please.

    @Ian G.: Nope.

  45. 45.

    Barbara

    March 29, 2017 at 6:00 pm

    @Ridnik Chrome: Actually, if I had to choose a drug that would be an antidote to Sessions it would probably be something more energizing than opiates.

  46. 46.

    Gelfling 545

    March 29, 2017 at 6:01 pm

    @zmulls: I would welcome Spitzer back as governor of NY with shouts of joy in place of our current make believe Democrat.

  47. 47.

    XTPDButthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)

    March 29, 2017 at 6:02 pm

    @Barbara: That perfectly describes human scum like Lord Jack Shafer and the Axios douchebags, although coming from the Chuck Todd/FTFNYT corners it might be genuine (albeit they’re too fucking stupid to grasp their culpability in starting this shit).

  48. 48.

    Kay

    March 29, 2017 at 6:04 pm

    @StringOnAStick:

    she said that “while he was on the prescription drugs he kept his job and lived a normal life.

    Yup. She nailed it. That’s what was so devilishly hard about it. They were functioning. Hooked and using, but appeared to be okay. That’s how it snuck up on us. I’ve interviewed them and had no idea how much they were using. They were functioning with really massive doses. Meth was like a car crash. It was UPON us. The wreck was loud – BOOM. There was no mistaking it. This was much more subtle. Like a slowly dawning horror. The addicts are certainly important but if I had a limited amount of money I’d put more of it towards their kids. We had so many removals. There’s a huge group of very small victims who aren’t getting any help.

  49. 49.

    BruceFromOhio

    March 29, 2017 at 6:04 pm

    But whatever else you want to say about Christie (and I’ve always found him to be a more complicated and gifted politician than his detractors can stand to admit), the man knows how to bring focus to a political operation, and how to advance a governing agenda, and how to balance public bluster with backroom pragmatism.

    If your intent is to fuck yourself over, run everything you touch into a wall or off a ledge, and generally be known as a shitty human being, why, yes! The man knows.

    Spitzer could have been redeemed; Edwards, meh. It really depends on the handler, and what redeeming actions follow the bedroom bust(s). On that note, CC has yet to perform any act of redemption, much less contrition. So, fuck off, Bai, keep your silk purse.

  50. 50.

    billcoop4

    March 29, 2017 at 6:04 pm

    @Zelma:

    It is dire commentary on the Trump administration that Chris Christie looks good in comparison.

    Having left NJ before Jabba was elected, I would still have to agree with you. One can, in some ways, work with someone whose only ideology is power; one can’t work with those whose ideology is power plus ideology (Jeff Sessions, for example).

    Without Bannon, I suspect Trump would be workable with as long as his name was on it (think bridges!); but then, without Bannon, Trump isn’t where he is.

    WMC

  51. 51.

    Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)

    March 29, 2017 at 6:04 pm

    @Barbara: That perfectly describes human scum like Lord Jack Shafer and the Axios douchebags, although coming from the Chuck Todd/FTFNYT corners it might be genuine (albeit they’re too fucking stupid to grasp their culpability in starting this shit).

  52. 52.

    Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)

    March 29, 2017 at 6:07 pm

    @BruceFromOhio: Edwards, Weiner & Christie all deserve to be fed into a woodchipper.

  53. 53.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    March 29, 2017 at 6:07 pm

    Trump’s Katrina? (photo)

  54. 54.

    quakerinabasement

    March 29, 2017 at 6:09 pm

    I thought that prayer went, “Take the wheel, Jesus!” not “Take the wheel, Gov. Sammiches!” Different church, I guess.

  55. 55.

    StringOnAStick

    March 29, 2017 at 6:10 pm

    @Raven: Yeah, I figured as much. I haven’t been in need of a prescription painkiller and a friend who did a worse job on her wrist that Gin & Tonic did was prescribed a limited number for her flight back from FL to CO of the “P” drug. Of course since she is from the DARE era she threw the prescription away and toughed it out on ibuprofen. She was finally able to get in for surgery 6 days after the accident and admitted later that she didn’t think she could have gone another day; I didn’t point out that they had offered her something that would have helped her tolerate that, but she threw it away thanks to St. Ronnie blabbing in her brain.

  56. 56.

    BruceFromOhio

    March 29, 2017 at 6:10 pm

    @billcoop4: First, it is painful that we have to converse in these terms. Second, I think you are right – lacking Bannon’s radioactivity and innate slime-mold nature, the horror and hate of the electorate would have remained anonymously bottled up away from the voting booth.

    The fact that such a thing has occurred for all to see indicates all by itself that something is very, very wrong with our process of selecting leaders.

    ETA: @Zelma:

    And frankly, I would have preferred him to Sessions as AG

    Interesting. Have to agree with this one, even with CC in his state of non-redemption. Though with Sessions, that bar is really, really low: I’d have preferred Skippy the fucking bush kangaroo over Sessions.

  57. 57.

    Chet

    March 29, 2017 at 6:14 pm

    @Zelma: all of this times a million.

  58. 58.

    sukabi

    March 29, 2017 at 6:15 pm

    @Yarrow: Matt’s a bit delusional if he thinks Christie would have any leverage to clean up Drumpf mess…he’s already ceded his balls to Drumpf during the primary and became his chicken fetcher.

  59. 59.

    Barbara

    March 29, 2017 at 6:15 pm

    @StringOnAStick: I realize that pain is personal, but when I was offered pain killers when I left the hospital after my cesarean, I turned them down the first time because I judged the pain to be significant but tolerable. The second time I took them, and ended up throwing them away because I felt like I was becoming too dependent on them. It is reasonable for someone to accept pain in order to avoid the risk of becoming addicted to pain pills. Having watched many addicts, I do not believe that addiction is a choice, exactly, but a series of small choices that become irrevocable, and generally, no one consciously realizes these small choices are leading them to become addicts.

  60. 60.

    dogwood

    March 29, 2017 at 6:27 pm

    @Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD): Yes they are sacks of shit. And I’d like to add that with Edwards the sex wasn’t the sleaziest part. He set up some poverty center as a front to launch his presidential campaign, using the money to travel to Africa, Appalachia, the Lower 9th Ward etc. Photo ops with poor folk, but no money for poor folk. He scammed Bunny Mellon and a rich Texas lawyer out of serious cash to pay for misstress upkeep as well. In ’07 Charies Pierce wrote the most sickening piece about Edwards as the only person who could save the Democrats and America. I will be forever grateful to the people of Iowa for sending Edwards packing early.

  61. 61.

    debbie

    March 29, 2017 at 6:28 pm

    @Kay:

    This was about a handful of people in the United States making a fuck-ton of money pushing legal drugs.

    I don’t know if anyone’s said this yet, but I’d like a list of who in the political class the pharmaceuticals have donated to. They should be pointed out as contributors to the drug problem.

  62. 62.

    trollhattan

    March 29, 2017 at 6:29 pm

    O/T Wonkette has learned $ciento1ogy will have a channel on Spectrum/Time Warner (reason enough to ditch them amirite?) and helpfully suggests some shows to develop. Commenters take things far, far further. Bring a sammich and enjoy.

  63. 63.

    Patricia Kayden

    March 29, 2017 at 6:31 pm

    @David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: Wow. That’s quite shocking. So Bai is able to create a fictional world where Christie is a competent government official while N.J.’s economy tumbles under his governorship. Talk about alternative facts.

  64. 64.

    Jeffro

    March 29, 2017 at 6:31 pm

    @Chris: and the funny thing is it wasn’t even the federal aid it was the optics of “the hug”

  65. 65.

    debbie

    March 29, 2017 at 6:31 pm

    @David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch:

    Trump is Katrina.

  66. 66.

    StringOnAStick

    March 29, 2017 at 6:35 pm

    @Barbara: Some people respond more strongly to any addictive substance, and some just to certain ones. If you felt there was a risk of developing dependency then you certainly did the right thing for you by throwing them away.

    There are studies that show that tolerating too much post-operative pain impedes healing, and everyone’s needs are different. My friend has such a head full of DARE that she really isn’t rational about it, at all. She’s about to face a really intense knee surgery and speaking from experience of both, my pain from knee surgery put the hysterectomy to shame. I know she will refuse the pain pills and demand that we all call her a hero for doing so because she sees that as the morally superior choice. Moral superiority and pain control are not part of the same continuum.

    The drug that really kickstarted the opiate addiction crisis is oxyc0tin, and doctors prescribed it readily because Perdue Pharma sold it as not having any addictive potential. Doctors were giving it for situations where something less was fine because they bought that lie and had seen patients get addicted to lesser opiates. I’ve had some major surgeries and the O drug was never offered. My BIL as he was suffering and dying from cancer last year could not get adequate pain control prescribed until he was in hospice.

  67. 67.

    JPL

    March 29, 2017 at 6:35 pm

    @debbie: Triple time this.

  68. 68.

    Patricia Kayden

    March 29, 2017 at 6:38 pm

    @Waldo: To what are you referring? Christie’s unhinged “lock her up” rantings at the Republican Convention would make me question whether he is sane. His poor governorship of N.J. would make me question whether he is competent.

  69. 69.

    geg6

    March 29, 2017 at 6:40 pm

    @trollhattan:

    Heh. Trying to counter Leah Remini’s show, which got good ratings. I watched several episodes of her show and it’s pretty good. She’s out to get them. She’s awesome.

  70. 70.

    ? Martin

    March 29, 2017 at 6:41 pm

    @David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: Well, more notably, somewhere in the mid 30s is where political scientists say that downticket candidates need to turn against the president in order to get re-elected. IOW, before tax reform gets going, Trump may lose most of his own party.

    The dynamics around the health care fight are really interesting. The last fight here which the GOP lost was really a fight over whether healthcare was a right or not, and not so much the machinations of how it works. Putting aside all other details of the battle, that was the question being posed to the public and very few of the public was willing to say that it wasn’t a right. So once enough Republican lawmakers accept that position, then all plans for non-universal healthcare go out the window. If the GOP is forced to go forward with a universal healthcare alternative, they find that there’s simply nothing meaningfully to the right of ACA. At that point, the GOP will be far more worried about protecting ACA from the prospect of competing universal plans such as single payer.

    Tom Price hasn’t backed down on his position, and presumably Trump hasn’t as well. It’s entirely possible they’re going to go full bore to undermine ACA, at which point the GOP is going to find themselves stepping up and screaming ‘STOP’ because if the ACA collapses, the public is going to look for an alternative plan, and the only reasonable alternative plan is going to be some form of single payer. I think it’s only now dawning on some Republicans that they not only have failed to repeal ACA, but that they’ve possibly set the conditions for single payer to ascend.

    If Trump’s popularity continues to fall, that’s only going to acceleration this process.

  71. 71.

    debbie

    March 29, 2017 at 6:45 pm

    @Kay:

    I heard some of Trump’s remarks on the opiod crisis today. Again with the “Nobody knew how bad it was until just now, and nobody’s tried to do anything” bullshit. Someone has to call him on this.

    I also finally heard O’Reilly’s remarks about Maxine Waters. It’s time he hit the road.

  72. 72.

    geg6

    March 29, 2017 at 6:47 pm

    @StringOnAStick:

    I won’t take opioid pain meds because they make me nauseous and I hate the fuzzy brain they give me, which seems to be a higher level than most people. I have had several occasions when they were prescribed to me but I never took more than one before ditching them for Advil or Motrin at prescription strength. I just have very little tolerance for them. The last time I had them was after oral surgery and I only took a half a pill and it was too much. I can’t understand why anyone would take them for anything. But I’m probably an outlier.

  73. 73.

    trollhattan

    March 29, 2017 at 6:47 pm

    @geg6:
    It would be double awesomesause if they actually taught her how to focus, because she’s focused on putting her foot on their throat and pressing mightily. I approve.

  74. 74.

    WereBear

    March 29, 2017 at 6:49 pm

    @Kay: This was about a handful of people in the United States making a fuck-ton of money pushing legal drugs.

    Yes. Exactly. The Republicans have undermined regulatory agencies and look what happens.

  75. 75.

    trollhattan

    March 29, 2017 at 6:49 pm

    @debbie:
    Maybe BillO can take her out for some MFing iced tea. He’ll get dropped by Fox the minute he stops making them money, I’m afraid. Hell, “judge” England is so too wiretapping Trump is back on air today.

  76. 76.

    lamh36

    March 29, 2017 at 6:52 pm

    Wait one minute Doug J…did you just drop a Salt N Peppa Shoop quote!

  77. 77.

    Yarrow

    March 29, 2017 at 6:53 pm

    @StringOnAStick:

    I know she will refuse the pain pills

    Well, that’s her choice. Hopefully someone will show her the medical research that shows that managing the pain so that the patient doesn’t end up in a pain spiral is the best way to help recovery in the short term. But opiates aren’t for everyone and different ones affect people differently, so I understand why people are skeptical.

    and demand that we all call her a hero for doing so because she sees that as the morally superior choice.

    Ugh. No. She is free to choose to deal with her pain her way, but that doesn’t obligate anyone else to praise her for her choice. Sounds like there could be some other psychological issues going on. A lot of people went through those DARE programs and didn’t come out the other side rabidly anti-pain medication and insisting others praise them for their choice not to use prescribed medications on a short term basis.

  78. 78.

    Brachiator

    March 29, 2017 at 6:54 pm

    @StringOnAStick:

    My BIL as he was suffering and dying from cancer last year could not get adequate pain control prescribed until he was in hospice.

    Sadly, some doctors still don’t realize that for a person with a terminal illness, possibly becoming addicted to pain medication is not a big worry.

  79. 79.

    geg6

    March 29, 2017 at 6:55 pm

    @trollhattan:

    If you haven’t seen it, you should see if you can find it on Netflix. She’s a woman on a mission. She wants payback for all the lost years she spent with them and for all the friends whose lives they ruined. She holds nothing back and she is not afraid them even though they constantly follow and harass her. She always makes sure the camera man gets them on film. Some of the stories of her friends who have left are just heartbreaking.

  80. 80.

    geg6

    March 29, 2017 at 6:56 pm

    @trollhattan:

    Rachel Maddow has been beating the shit out of him in the ratings the last few weeks.

  81. 81.

    WereBear

    March 29, 2017 at 7:00 pm

    @StringOnAStick: When she told her son’s story, she said that “while he was on the prescription drugs he kept his job and lived a normal life. When he could no longer get those is when he went to heroin.”

    And look at how hard it is to get into rehab.

  82. 82.

    Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)

    March 29, 2017 at 7:00 pm

    @lamh36: Vaguely relevant: DJ Muggs used the same Sweet Inspirations sample on the original version of Ice Cube’s “Check Yo Self” (off the album The Predator). However he initially disliked his production work in that song and only came around to it once “Shoop” became popular.

    What I’m saying is: Doug should totally hit me up on Twitter for rap lyrics he can use for post titles.

  83. 83.

    amk

    March 29, 2017 at 7:00 pm

    oh good, a in-your face, obnoxious, abusive corrupt thug of a lying pos is what we all were missing all these months.

  84. 84.

    Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)

    March 29, 2017 at 7:03 pm

    @Brachiator: IIRC, heroin restrictions are lifted for hospice patients in Britain for exactly this reason.

  85. 85.

    Turgidson

    March 29, 2017 at 7:03 pm

    Big Chicken’s troubles do not stem from plowing someone who is not his wife or using a private email server.

    So, yawn.

  86. 86.

    japa21

    March 29, 2017 at 7:03 pm

    @debbie: That quote goes right along side “Nobody knew that health care was hard” or “I had the biggest whatever” or, come to think about it, virtually everything he says as stupidest comments ever made by a President.

  87. 87.

    japa21

    March 29, 2017 at 7:04 pm

    @amk: What do you mean? We’ve had Trump haven’t we.

  88. 88.

    Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)

    March 29, 2017 at 7:07 pm

    @japa21: You neglect his legendary Frederick Douglass wordshart.

  89. 89.

    khead

    March 29, 2017 at 7:08 pm

    Someone needs to print this column out and put it in a time capsule with an explanation of how we are doomed.

  90. 90.

    trollhattan

    March 29, 2017 at 7:09 pm

    @geg6: Did not know that. Good!

  91. 91.

    japa21

    March 29, 2017 at 7:09 pm

    @Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD): Falls into the “virtually everything he says” category; but you may be right, it deserves special mention as well.

  92. 92.

    EBT

    March 29, 2017 at 7:10 pm

    @geg6: They give me a warm fuzzy feeling, like being wrapped in a blanket that makes everything feel right in the world. I also don’t take them recreationally because holy shit they feel so nice.

  93. 93.

    Iowa Old Lady

    March 29, 2017 at 7:11 pm

    @japa21: Yeah, what he means is this is the first he’s heard of it. And that would be because he’s achieved an ignorance so astounding that it must have required effort.

  94. 94.

    WereBear

    March 29, 2017 at 7:12 pm

    @StringOnAStick: I once had a tooth die on me; middle of the night, and no emergency room on earth would have helped me with it. It took hours.

    Didn’t build my character one bit.

  95. 95.

    Brachiator

    March 29, 2017 at 7:17 pm

    @Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD):

    IIRC, heroin restrictions are lifted for hospice patients in Britain for exactly this reason.

    I rented the upper part of a house from a co-worker. Her husband had a serious terminal illness. Some nights, even with medication, I could hear him moan from the pain. I felt very sad for him. His wife had difficulty getting an adequate dose of medication which would allow him to deal with his pain. No one should have to suffer like that.

  96. 96.

    cain

    March 29, 2017 at 7:19 pm

    @StringOnAStick:

    My concern with the screaming about prescription pain killers is that once again we will swing the pendulum to the “prescribe less” side, and people who really need them won’t be able to get a prescription anymore. It’s like pointing people at a heroin dealer and saying “there’s the guy who can help you out”.

    No you swing towards medical marijuana, although it seems Big Pharma wants to control pot from what I understand. Hopefully the states will push back since they are making some nice cash out of it.

  97. 97.

    hovercraft

    March 29, 2017 at 7:22 pm

    @ruemara:

    Trump won thanks to women and people of color.

    I apologize to all of BJ for my part in this, I never meant for my vote and those of my family to elect Twitler. Unfortunately no wise white man explained to me, what I was doing. If only they could have told me that the only way to force assholes like him to vote and behave responsibly was to succumb to blackmail. They took their toys and went home, leaving us all at the tender mercies of Twitler.

  98. 98.

    BruceFromOhio

    March 29, 2017 at 7:22 pm

    @? Martin:

    I think it’s only now dawning on some Republicans that they not only have failed to repeal ACA, but that they’ve possibly set the conditions for single payer to ascend.

    We were discussing this sobre la mesa: if the Chamber of Commerse sees a way to free its membership from the shackles of caring for employees, well then friends, we got a runner. Irony, how does it work.

  99. 99.

    ? Martin

    March 29, 2017 at 7:23 pm

    @WereBear: And we should not overlook that there were doctors prescribing these and Medicaid paying for these that both went undetected and unpunished. Yes, the pharma companies were sending suspicious quantities of drugs to these towns, but one of Democrats arguments is that the doctors are themselves a regulatory layer by virtue of their licensure and can be trusted with that role (see abortion).

    I think Democrats would do well to acknowledge all layers of this stack that broke down – and yes, that includes the pharma companies, the practice of kickbacks to doctors, the profit motives between doctors and pharmacies and pharma companies (they are now selling constipation drugs to opioid addicts), the failure of Medicaid to catch these situations, and so on.

  100. 100.

    Fair Economist

    March 29, 2017 at 7:24 pm

    @StringOnAStick:

    My concern with the screaming about prescription pain killers is that once again we will swing the pendulum to the “prescribe less” side, and people who really need them won’t be able to get a prescription anymore. It’s like pointing people at a heroin dealer and saying “there’s the guy who can help you out”.

    It’s really not clear that anybody “needs” opioid painkillers long term unless, arguably, they’re addicted. Several longer-term studies have found that people taking opioid painkillers have *more* pain long term than people who don’t. Taking opioids reduces the body’s natural endorphin system, actually increasing pain and suffering. Over time this effect becomes at least comparable to the reduction from the opioids themselves, so when the patient is on the drugs they feel like they would if they’d never taken them, and when they’re off they feel much worse.

    The huge and puzzling increases in white middle-aged mortality also match up with the soaring increases in long-term opioid prescriptions. Many people have suggested increases in economic stress as an alternate explanation, but the problem is that economic stress is up in most countries over the past few decades, and only the US has had the mortality increase.

  101. 101.

    WereBear

    March 29, 2017 at 7:27 pm

    @? Martin: pharma companies (they are now selling constipation drugs to opioid addicts)

    It’s enough to make you think this conspiracy theory is true: pharma wants us all on as many drugs as possible. Take this drug, then the next one for its side effects, until you are carrying a full grocery bag to the doctor’s office.

  102. 102.

    liberal

    March 29, 2017 at 7:28 pm

    Matt Taibbi once had some interaction with David Gergen; maybe they were both being interviewed on the same news analysis show. Taibbi thought Gergen looked confused at some point; he thought perhaps G. thought he was Matt Bai, in which case his remarks weren’t computing.

  103. 103.

    Roger Moore

    March 29, 2017 at 7:29 pm

    @Barbara:
    One of the key things they’ve learned about opiates, though, is that they have a low risk of abuse and addiction when they’re used for acute pain, like surgery or a broken bone. People use them to deal with the pain, then stop easily when the pain goes away. There’s a worry about doctors giving patients more pills than they need because of problems with the excess being diverted to addicts, but addiction is not a serious risk.

    The big problem is using them for chronic pain, where people wind up using them for years or even decades. The pain keeps getting worse and they gradually develop a tolerance, so they keep moving to ever higher doses. It’s more-or-less guaranteed to result in a lot of addicts, some of whom will graduate to illegal opiates when the maximum legal does no longer helps them, but it’s a wonderful stable revenue source for the drug companies.

  104. 104.

    BruceFromOhio

    March 29, 2017 at 7:30 pm

    @Fair Economist:

    The huge and puzzling increases in white middle-aged mortality also match up with the soaring increases in long-term opioid prescriptions.

    And though she’s not really ill
    There’s a little yellow pill
    She goes running for the shelter of a mother’s little helper
    And it helps her on her way, gets her through her busy day

  105. 105.

    Debbie1

    March 29, 2017 at 7:30 pm

    I actually think that’s an unfair assessment of the media. After all, when Schwarzenegger flexed his peepee in a woman, not his wife, it was breathlessly reported – no, that was Clinton. Well, anyway, Schwarzenegger was never able to get a public high-profile high paying job again – wait, Celebrity Apprentice. So, you were saying…

  106. 106.

    Fair Economist

    March 29, 2017 at 7:31 pm

    @debbie:

    I’d like a list of who in the political class the pharmaceuticals have donated to. They should be pointed out as contributors to the drug problem.

    +1000

  107. 107.

    Origuy

    March 29, 2017 at 7:33 pm

    @Fair Economist: My housemate has Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome and sigmoiditis. She will be on opioids for the rest of her life. They help her not die in screaming agony. Marijuana has helped reduce the amount of morphine and fentanyl that she uses, but she cannot function without them. I hope you are a better economist than you are a physician.

  108. 108.

    Turgidson

    March 29, 2017 at 7:34 pm

    @liberal:

    I remember this – I think Taibbi was on to talk about the investigatory reporting he did on the teabaggers early on in their “ascent.” He basically went to their events a bunch of times, interviewed them, and ended up listening to them talk all sorts of hypocritical and ignorant nonsense (“keep government out of Medicare” type stupidity coming from someone in a Medicare-funded scooter – that kind of stuff). Gergen thought he was being oh so rude for calling a “vital political movement” a bunch of fucking morons.

  109. 109.

    Debbie1

    March 29, 2017 at 7:34 pm

    Trump won thanks to women and “people of color?”
    That is NOT how to spell Russia.

  110. 110.

    raven

    March 29, 2017 at 7:36 pm

    @Roger Moore: Yep, I used them for my hernia operation recovery and they did the trick. I have a bunch left but don’t mess with them.

  111. 111.

    BBA

    March 29, 2017 at 7:38 pm

    @Gelfling 545: If Spitzer was governor, we’d have annual government shutdowns and half the Dems in the state lege would caucus with the GOP out of spite. As opposed to now, when the budget passes and a few of the Dems in the state lege caucus with the GOP because…uh…probably some deal Cuomo’s dad made with Warren Anderson 30 years ago, never mind that they’re both dead now, it’s Albany.

    The point is, complain all you want about Cuomo the Lesser (and God knows I do), but he knows how to work the system, while Spitzer just ran into a brick wall as governor and would’ve been better off staying as AG.

  112. 112.

    Yarrow

    March 29, 2017 at 7:39 pm

    @BruceFromOhio:

    if the Chamber of Commerse sees a way to free its membership from the shackles of caring for employees, well then friends, we got a runner.

    I’ve never understood why this isn’t discussed more. Why in the world should companies provide health insurance for their employees? And, yes, I know how it got started–that’s not really the point. It doesn’t make sense as the main way of delivering health insurance. I don’t understand why companies would want to stick with it. I’d think they’d be pushing for it to be decoupled from employment. Focus on their core business.

  113. 113.

    Debbie1

    March 29, 2017 at 7:40 pm

    @Turgidson: I realize CC’s Bridgegate scandal wasn’t treated as salacious, but it had corruption, collusion, and incompetence on Christie’s part. Arguably, it was more interesting than the dreaded E-MAILS (!).

  114. 114.

    Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)

    March 29, 2017 at 7:43 pm

    @liberal: Back around 2010-11 he did a post on how he was getting shat on from some guy on the left who mistook him for the same. Or something; I don’t remember if this is the same thing you’re referring to.

    Taibbi’s become increasingly less hinged since the election*, but I’d give up my shins for the reformation of a Supreme Court for Assholes.

    *Although he still has his writing skills, and isn’t as unhinged as his former eXile colleagues.**

    ** Double-fuck Mark Ames with a flaming chainsaw

  115. 115.

    Fair Economist

    March 29, 2017 at 7:43 pm

    @Origuy:

    My housemate has Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome and sigmoiditis. She will be on opioids for the rest of her life. They help her not die in screaming agony.

    Maybe. But it’s very possible she hurts more now than she would without having ever taken them. Certainly what she feels now when she misses a dose is far worse that what she’d feel if she’d never taken them, because they certainly severely damage the body’s ability to stop, ignore, or deal with pain. Chronic pain is awful, but that’s not a reason to take something that might make it worse long-term because it helps short-term.

  116. 116.

    Baud

    March 29, 2017 at 7:44 pm

    @Yarrow: They or their managers fear the tax hikes will be more than the current costs.

    Or they fear competition from smaller companies who no longer have the expense of providing health care.

  117. 117.

    EBT

    March 29, 2017 at 7:47 pm

    @Fair Economist: Spoken as someone who obviously never experienced chronic pain.

  118. 118.

    El Caganer

    March 29, 2017 at 7:49 pm

    @geg6: Scary people -down here in FL they’re trying to take over the city of Clearwater, and might succeed.

  119. 119.

    Woodrowfan

    March 29, 2017 at 7:50 pm

    @zmulls: well, Edwards was pretty f-ing sleazy. He deserved to be ditched. (so does Newt and, well, pretty much every republican alive today)

  120. 120.

    ThresherK

    March 29, 2017 at 7:50 pm

    Chris Christie’s approval rating in New Jersey is nearing single digits. He narrowly avoided time in the clink for his involvement in one of the most widely derided political scandals of our era.

    But Matt Bai still loves him. Why weren’t Eliot Spitzer and John Edwards given this post-debacle treatment?

    Because they’re Democrats, of course.

    I guess we have a new word for this reporting schtick: Baicurious.

    (•_•) / ( •_•)>⌐■-■ / (⌐■_■)

  121. 121.

    BBA

    March 29, 2017 at 7:52 pm

    @Yarrow: It keeps employees from leaving. Next best thing to indentured servitude.

  122. 122.

    EBT

    March 29, 2017 at 7:55 pm

    @El Caganer: They have been trying that for 20 years.

  123. 123.

    danielx

    March 29, 2017 at 7:56 pm

    @gene108:

    Basically, right-wingers are willing to tolerate any a lot of malfeasance, if it helps them get what they want.

    Fixed.

  124. 124.

    El Caganer

    March 29, 2017 at 7:57 pm

    @debbie: I wonder if the orange oaf knows that Gov. Chubbie’s views on drugs are (or were, at least when I was still in Philly) relatively sane. He actually suggested that it might be more of a public health problem than a criminal justice problem. Still dunno how he formed that opinion; still can’t believe he went to bat for a Muslim judge, either. Neither of those two things would ever convince me to vote for him, though.

  125. 125.

    El Caganer

    March 29, 2017 at 7:59 pm

    @EBT: They own a shitload of property downtown, and have been having private meetings (off the record) with city government. I don’t read the Tampa Bay Times regularly, so I’m not 100% up to speed with what’s going on.

  126. 126.

    danielx

    March 29, 2017 at 8:01 pm

    @schrodingers_cat:

    Our side wants to be goody two shoes and think that compromise with T is desirable. After last week’s win.

    Examples, please.

    I hope you’re wrong. Only reaction Dems should have to Trump goes like this:

    Would Not Piss On Him If He Was On Fire.

    Ni shagu nazad!

  127. 127.

    Yarrow

    March 29, 2017 at 8:02 pm

    @Baud: @BBA: All good points, especially the indentured servitude. I still think that if companies were freed from having to provide health insurance they might find it worked out well for them. They’d get the best people for their company, not people who were only there because they need the health insurance. Companies don’t provide car insurance or house insurance. They should just get out of the health insurance game altogether.

  128. 128.

    stinger

    March 29, 2017 at 8:06 pm

    @Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD): Do you have a child? Does that child swim in public swimming pools?

  129. 129.

    amk

    March 29, 2017 at 8:08 pm

    So Trump has an approval rating in the low 30s w/ independents & below 10% with Dems. But Dems should work w/ him? How does that make sense?— (((Harry Enten))) (@ForecasterEnten) March 29, 2017

  130. 130.

    EBT

    March 29, 2017 at 8:09 pm

    @El Caganer: Lots of issues with dead women in basements or on dilapidated cruise ships for starters.

  131. 131.

    schrodingers_cat

    March 29, 2017 at 8:11 pm

    @danielx: These are hypotheticals but some BJ commenters and our insurance geek FPer thinks that cooperating with Rs on healthcare, infrastructure etc may not be a bad thing.

  132. 132.

    Baud

    March 29, 2017 at 8:12 pm

    @amk:

    “Why won’t Dems work with him” is the “Why won’t Obama lead” of the Trump era.

  133. 133.

    amk

    March 29, 2017 at 8:14 pm

    @Baud: reaching across aisle is a one-way street.

  134. 134.

    schrodingers_cat

    March 29, 2017 at 8:15 pm

    @amk: More like a lamb cooperating with the butcher.

  135. 135.

    Baud

    March 29, 2017 at 8:15 pm

    @amk: It’s our job to make it safe for people to vote for Republicans.

  136. 136.

    danielx

    March 29, 2017 at 8:15 pm

    @Baud:

    “Why won’t Dems work with him” is the “Why won’t Obama lead” of the Trump era.

    Because he lies as naturally as he breathes and his word is worthless.

    You cannot work with someone, politically speaking, who regards a signed contract as a starting point in negotiations.

  137. 137.

    debbie

    March 29, 2017 at 8:17 pm

    @WereBear:

    Have you seen the ad for the drug (can’t remember the name) for terminal cancer patients? “It may give you more time.” The first couple times I heard it, I yelled at the television.

  138. 138.

    Baud

    March 29, 2017 at 8:17 pm

    @danielx: Privileged white guys have intrinsic credibility.

  139. 139.

    Roger Moore

    March 29, 2017 at 8:17 pm

    @BruceFromOhio:

    We were discussing this sobre la mesa: if the Chamber of Commerse sees a way to free its membership from the shackles of caring for employees, well then friends, we got a runner.

    Not gonna happen. I don’t think they see caring for their employees as shackles. They see themselves as job creators who are virtuously providing benefits like wages and health insurance out of the goodness of their hearts. They also like the implicit threat of loss of insurance as something to hold over the heads of employees who might think about quitting. Socialized health insurance takes away both their feeling of virtue and the threat.

  140. 140.

    amk

    March 29, 2017 at 8:18 pm

    @Baud: bipartisanship is doing everything the republican way.

  141. 141.

    Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)

    March 29, 2017 at 8:19 pm

    @stinger: No (I’m actually in my early 20s), and I have no idea what your comment has to do with anything.

  142. 142.

    Iowa Old Lady

    March 29, 2017 at 8:22 pm

    Interesting research on the impact of gender quotas in the Swedish government. Conclusion:

    A common criticism against gender quotas is that they are anathema to meritocratic principles. This research on Sweden shows that the opposite can be true: Quotas actually increased the competence of politicians by leading to the displacement of mediocre men whether as candidates or leaders. The results may also be relevant for judging gender quotas in business.

  143. 143.

    Baud

    March 29, 2017 at 8:23 pm

    @Iowa Old Lady: As a dude who is both liberal and mediocre, I’m conflicted.

  144. 144.

    WereBear

    March 29, 2017 at 8:28 pm

    @debbie: Yes. I did too.

  145. 145.

    Iowa Old Lady

    March 29, 2017 at 8:29 pm

    @Baud: Among blog commenters, there is room for all. :-)

  146. 146.

    Roger Moore

    March 29, 2017 at 8:29 pm

    @Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD):
    One of Edwards’s most famous cases involved a lawsuit over defective pool equipment that eviscerated a 3-year-old girl. He may have been a sleaze in his personal life, but he deserved his reputation for being on the side of the little guy against big business.

  147. 147.

    amk

    March 29, 2017 at 8:34 pm

    I can't get over the fact that Obama was more popular at 10% unemployment than Trump is at 4.7% unemployment: https://t.co/M4oronf9pv— Ezra Klein (@ezraklein) March 29, 2017

    but hey, maga.

  148. 148.

    burnspbesq

    March 29, 2017 at 8:36 pm

    @Zelma:

    Give thanks. It’s now the end of March. If Comey (who is from Allendale) were planning to run (as I thought for most of the last year), it would have happened already.

  149. 149.

    Doug!

    March 29, 2017 at 8:44 pm

    @lamh36:

    Yes, I did.

    Big jeans because Christie is so big of course.

  150. 150.

    Doug!

    March 29, 2017 at 8:46 pm

    @Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD):

    What’s your name on twitter?

  151. 151.

    Frank Wilhoit

    March 29, 2017 at 8:47 pm

    Christie is Trump lite. Why would anyone want Trump-lite when the real thing is on tap? Unless Trump is a bad thing, in which case…

    So the idea must be that Trump is a good thing, but we have a little bit too much of a good thing. Bizarre. Bai has sometimes been much better than this.

  152. 152.

    Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)

    March 29, 2017 at 8:50 pm

    @Doug!: @x_t_pd

  153. 153.

    stinger

    March 29, 2017 at 8:50 pm

    @Roger Moore: Thanks (I was slowly reading through comments). He also fought and won several other cases that have made this a safer, better country. So, not a TOTAL sack of vomit, or whatever the insult was.

  154. 154.

    danielx

    March 29, 2017 at 8:51 pm

    @Baud:

    Well, yeah, ordinarily. In the case of the Malignant Mango, even other privileged white guys know and say he’s a lying motherfucker.

    Which is why none of the big domestic commercial banks will do business with him any more, which is why he (supposedly) borrowed money from Russian banks connected with undesirables of one sort or another, because they were his lender of last resort.

    ….and the rest, as they say, is history.

  155. 155.

    Yarrow

    March 29, 2017 at 8:52 pm

    @amk: I think this piece of data shows that employment rates are not the only thing that determines a president’s popularity.

  156. 156.

    rikyrah

    March 29, 2017 at 8:53 pm

    George Takei‏Verified account @GeorgeTakei

    White supremacist who murdered Timothy Caughman in NYC has been charged with terrorism. Say it with me: Radical White Supremacist Terrorist.

  157. 157.

    Baud

    March 29, 2017 at 8:55 pm

    @rikyrah:

    A white jihadi.

    A whihadi.

  158. 158.

    Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)

    March 29, 2017 at 8:55 pm

    @stinger: Jon Stewart came up with it.

  159. 159.

    Jim Parene

    March 29, 2017 at 9:00 pm

    @Gelfling 545: As a survivor of Superstorm Sandy’s “Recovery” I could not agree with you more. Cuomo sucks.

  160. 160.

    rikyrah

    March 29, 2017 at 9:03 pm

    ELLE Magazine (US)‏Verified account @ELLEmagazine

    You will never, in your entire life, get the best of @maxinewaters:
    From the ELLE article on Maxine Waters:

    excerpt

    Honey! Your fave, Maxine Waters, is back at it again. She showed up on All In with your bespectacled boo, Chris Hayes, last night and they did a double-act to beat the band.

    And I know what you’re thinking, “I don’t think Hayes got in more than three words in that interview.” Girl, three is generous! That’s how they roll.

    Chris Hayes: Do you—

    Congresswoman Maxine Waters: (Seven minute Shonda Rhimes monologue, followed by self-satisfied grin, closing with the passing of the offering basket and a grand jeté.)

    The entire All In interview is about eight glorious, soul-stirring minutes long but here’s a clip. It’s about 90 seconds. An amuse bouche of getting your entire life

    …………………………….

    :

    Congresswoman Maxine Waters isn’t even reading these fools anymore. She has completely leveled up. She is like Scarlett Johansson in Lucy, thatmovie where she was using like 100% of her brain and she can control televisions and tell the future. That’s Maxine Waters. Except with reading. We don’t even have a word for what she’s doing yet.

    Honestly,I wasn’t even going to write about Bill O’Reilly’s comments about her hair today. And I’m not, actually. I’m writing about Congresswoman Waters.

    Because Bill O’Reilly (whoever that is) can’t come for her. He wasn’t sent for. His hairline doesn’t have the range. She has 40 years
    of political receipts. He has tired, racist dog whistles about hair.
    These are not equivalent. If he thinks he was reading her, he needs
    Hooked on Phonics.

    So, dearly beloved, we are not gathered here today to talk about the
    schoolyard taunts of a talking head. We are gathered in the Church of
    Maxine.

    BWA HA HA HA HA H AH HA HA HA HA

  161. 161.

    StringOnAStick

    March 29, 2017 at 9:04 pm

    @geg6: There really is a range of responses to opiods. I see it in dentistry where my patients have “allergic to x painkiller” on their charts. What that means in 99% of cases is they get too woozy and don’t like that, not that they are actually allergic. Some people are strong responders like you and some get little response (sometimes that is due to having a tolerance from excess use), but most people are in the middle of the Bell curve.

    When you study addiction you’ll see stories of people who had their first drink or pill and they knew immediately that this was the road they felt compelled to go down. Most come by their addiction gradually it seems.

  162. 162.

    schrodingers_cat

    March 29, 2017 at 9:07 pm

    @Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD): Jon Stewart is not the best judge of character. See his obsequious interviews with John Yoo and Don Rumsfeld. He is used to bowing and scraping before Republicans on his show when they would show up for an interview.

  163. 163.

    laura

    March 29, 2017 at 9:09 pm

    @dogwood: I totally fell for the con of John Edwards – and the worst is that he soo undermined the legitimate and urgent issue of two Americas.
    The time lost and the damage done. . . . And still, we are nothing, if not two Americas.

  164. 164.

    Thru the Looking Glass...

    March 29, 2017 at 9:11 pm

    @hellslittlestangel:

    Right-wingers love powerful men who get away with committing crimes.

    They’re pulling for their own, kinda like a sporting event… a lot of them also know they’re just one witness or mistake away from being arrested themselves…

  165. 165.

    eemom

    March 29, 2017 at 9:14 pm

    I get confused between Matt Bai and Matt Taibbi. Is there a difference?

  166. 166.

    Chris T.

    March 29, 2017 at 9:14 pm

    @Debbie1:

    Trump won thanks to women and “people of color?” That is NOT how to spell Russia.

    Russia is red.

    Red is a color.

    Therefore, Trump won because of People of Red Color!

  167. 167.

    Lizzy L

    March 29, 2017 at 9:19 pm

    @Fair Economist:
    @Roger Moore:

    Careful please, with making breezy generalizations about other people’s pain. Pain is fucking personal. My 66 year old friend P. has multiple serious medical conditions including unhealed fractures, severe scoliosis, osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, and yes, chronic pain syndrome, for which she takes morphine. (It used to be Fentanyl until she developed an allergic reaction to it.) She is scrupulous in not taking too much morphine — I have seen her doubled over and weeping in pain waiting for her medication. Her dosage has been the same for years. She can only take a limited amount of morphine because on higher doses she becomes confused, delirious even. Under no circumstances can she do without pain meds. Is she an addict? Who the fuck cares? The term has no meaning in her condition.

  168. 168.

    StringOnAStick

    March 29, 2017 at 9:20 pm

    @WereBear: Oh, so sorry to hear that; the pain from an abscessed tooth can be absolutely stunning in intensity. Its the pressure from the exploding infection that pressures the nerve and puts it into pain hyper drive.

  169. 169.

    amk

    March 29, 2017 at 9:21 pm

    That House Republicans are talking about bringing AHCA back up next week is hilarious, and a sign that they have learned nothing.— Josh Barro (@jbarro) March 29, 2017

  170. 170.

    Ruckus

    March 29, 2017 at 9:24 pm

    @Zelma:

    It is dire commentary on the Trump administration that Chris Christie looks good in comparison.

    He doesn’t look good. Just better. Comparatively he is. But only comparatively and only to something like drumpf.
    Just wondering what he’s going to do when NJ finally is able to elect someone more than what 8% sane.

  171. 171.

    StringOnAStick

    March 29, 2017 at 9:25 pm

    @cain: Totally agree on medical pot and I’m proud of my state for being humane about it, and pissed that Sessions said it was equal to heroin recently. It is on the same schedule and therefore research on it is greatly hindered, which is stupid and is yet another law passed due to racism.

  172. 172.

    Chris T.

    March 29, 2017 at 9:28 pm

    @Brachiator:

    ETA: The crazy thing is that with Trump the bar for ethical behavior doesn’t even exist anymore. The bar ain’t low. It got dropped on the ground, rolled through excrement and then thrown in a ditch.

    The bar is so low, you have to dig miles into the earth just to read it with ground-penetrating radar.

  173. 173.

    Doug!

    March 29, 2017 at 9:28 pm

    @eemom:

    Less and less of one.

  174. 174.

    Another Scott

    March 29, 2017 at 9:29 pm

    BBC’s Paul Wood – “Trump Russia dossier key claim ‘verified'”:

    [ A Russian “economist” at the Embassy was claimed in the Dossier to be a spy, and that has been ‘verified’. ]

    […]

    In early December, the whole thing, 35 pages, was sent to Senator John McCain, who pressed the FBI director to investigate exhaustively.

    The following month, the intelligence agencies briefed both then-President Barack Obama and Trump about the dossier – and the entire contents were published by Buzzfeed.

    In the report, Steele spoke of an “established operational liaison between the TRUMP team and the Kremlin… an intelligence exchange had been running between them for at least 8 years.”

    Members of the Obama administration believe, based on analysis they saw from the intelligence community, that the information exchange claimed by Steele continued into the election.

    “This is a three-headed operation,” said one former official, setting out the case, based on the intelligence: Firstly, hackers steal damaging emails from senior Democrats. Secondly, the stories based on this hacked information appear on Twitter and Facebook, posted by thousands of automated “bots”, then on Russia’s English-language outlets, RT and Sputnik, then right-wing US “news” sites such as Infowars and Breitbart, then Fox and the mainstream media. Thirdly, Russia downloads the online voter rolls.

    Trump ‘compromising’ claims: How and why did we get here?

    The people around Donald Trump

    The voter rolls are said to fit into this because of “microtargeting”. Using email, Facebook and Twitter, political advertising can be tailored very precisely: individual messaging for individual voters.

    “You are stealing the stuff and pushing it back into the US body politic,” said the former official, “you know where to target that stuff when you’re pushing it back.”

    This would take co-operation with the Trump campaign, it is claimed.

    [ image ]

    “If you need to ensure that white women in Pennsylvania don’t vote or independents get pissed in Michigan so they stay home: that’s voter suppression. You can figure what your target demographics and locations are from the voter rolls. Then you can use that to target your bot.”

    This is the “big picture” some accuse the FBI of failing to see.

    It is, so far, all allegation – and not just the parts concerning Donald Trump and his people.
    For instance, the US intelligence agencies said last October that the voter rolls had been “scanned and probed” from a server in Russia.

    […]

    (Emphasis added.)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  175. 175.

    Ruckus

    March 29, 2017 at 9:31 pm

    @Kay:

    The kids probably know way more than he does.

    People with their heads located firmly in the back passage have a difficult time learning so it’s not difficult to believe that kids know more.

  176. 176.

    Thru the Looking Glass...

    March 29, 2017 at 9:31 pm

    @eemom: Oh Lord yes…

    Matt Tabbai has a conscience… hates corruption… does a lot of financial writing… kind of a junio version of Hunter Thompson… I rather like his work…

  177. 177.

    Thru the Looking Glass...

    March 29, 2017 at 9:32 pm

    @amk: The floggings will continue until morale improves…

  178. 178.

    Ksmiami

    March 29, 2017 at 9:35 pm

    @Barbara: agreed- Doctors over prescribe pain meds when sometimes a little pain is ok versus the risk of addiction/life destruction – also for the record, doctors and nurses are high risk careers for drug addiction so they lean toward pain meds as solution not as a small help. Literally I’ve just said no to Vicodin etc and been ok with 3 advil

  179. 179.

    Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)

    March 29, 2017 at 9:37 pm

    @Thru the Looking Glass…: …thin-skinned sexist…got worse since primaries…now fucking “neo-McCarthyism” chicken…still good writer…

  180. 180.

    Ruckus

    March 29, 2017 at 9:50 pm

    @trollhattan:
    A religious cult channel? What would make that one any different than the other religious channels on cable?
    And yes, Charter Communications is fucking scum.

  181. 181.

    Ruckus

    March 29, 2017 at 10:12 pm

    @geg6:

    But I’m probably an outlier.

    You may be but you have company. A fair amount I’d guess. Some of us are just built different, we are the outliers, the 5-10% that can’t tolerate some drugs at all. We are who all those side effect lists are for.

  182. 182.

    Omnes Omnibus

    March 29, 2017 at 10:28 pm

    @lamh36: It’s a full service blog.

  183. 183.

    Ruckus

    March 29, 2017 at 10:44 pm

    @Roger Moore:

    Socialized health insurance takes away both their feeling of virtue and the threat.

    I seem to recall that exact argument against the ACA back when it was proposed. It made no sense to me then as I never considers either when I provided it to my employees. I did so for two reasons. First I wanted HCI. Second, so did the people I wanted to work for me. And the market for reasonable individual HCI back then was horrible. To be honest it was much cheaper for me to purchase a group policy than to pay everyone even higher wages to cover them purchasing an individual/family policy. And it covered everyone, the young, the old, the inbetween and some of those would not have purchased insurance even with a bigger paycheck. Do not know what the employer HCI market looks like now.

  184. 184.

    Ruckus

    March 29, 2017 at 11:00 pm

    @Lizzy L:
    It is breathtaking to know someone with so many things going wrong that you don’t really understand how they deal with half of it. I just lost a decades long friend (66 yrs old) who had so many issues and always kicked ass health wise. She had a pacemaker for over 40 yrs. That was the least of her issues by far. I have visited here in ICU and it had nothing to do with her heart. I have friends that have been in wheelchairs for decades, tell me that doesn’t suck.
    What I’m trying to say is best of luck and life to your friend. Glad you have her back.

  185. 185.

    No One You Know

    March 29, 2017 at 11:48 pm

    @Origuy:

    When I’m moaning and crying non-stop, pain management isn’t really an option.

    When I’m stuck in the half-light of constant pain, anyone denying me relief had better sit and listen to what it sounds and looks like to see a human being reduced to the state of bruised meat. Let’s have that discussion then.

    In the latter case, a senior nurse came in to check on me and promptly chewed out the attending nurse for having a problem with this.
    And I go to that hospital now, and not the other.

  186. 186.

    fuckwit

    March 30, 2017 at 12:47 am

    More likely, because they couldn’t keep their dicks in their pants.

    Christie can’t even find his dick without a mirror and/or an assistant, I bet.

    IT’S UNDER THERE SOMEWHERE!!

  187. 187.

    jonothan8

    March 30, 2017 at 3:38 am

    @Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD): I saw it too! Brilliant!

  188. 188.

    sherparick

    March 30, 2017 at 8:32 am

    Apparently, Matt Bai has not gotten the memo about how much Jared Kushner and Ivanka hate Governor Nasty’s guts because of way Nasty used Jared’s Dad as a trophy to help his political career. Also, the way Trump went out his way to humiliate Nasty from time to time during the campaign, despite Nasty sucking up to him in spectacularly public ways, indicates that Trump himself does not like or trust Nasty. I have tried to avoid the fat comments, because really that is the least and most human part of Nasty as opposed to his complete lack of human empathy and disinterest in doing his job as Governor.

  189. 189.

    What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?

    March 30, 2017 at 8:59 am

    If Anthony Weiner were a Republican, he’d still be in Congress. IOKIYAR. That applies to everything.

  190. 190.

    sherparick

    March 30, 2017 at 9:01 am

    @Roger Moore: @BruceFromOhio: I still need someone to explain how, in the confines of the American political system as it exists under the current Constitution (where Wyoming and California each get two Senators), and with “Citizens United” as the law of the land, the process by which “single payer” becomes the law of the land? It took 45 years from Medicare’s creation in 1965 to get the ACA passed in 2010. I was 10 in 1965, and I don’t think I will live long enough to see “single payer.”

    Also, the current American progressive “fetish” about “single payer” is just that. Yes, it is how Canada (Parliamentary System without the U.S. history of race relations) does it, and to certain extent Australia and France and the U.K.’s National Health Service (all created by left wing Governments in parliamentary systems), although with supplements by private insurance. The Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, and Austria all have systems that are somewhat like the ACA; e.g. regulated mandated subsidized private health insurance markets. So there is more than one way to skin the cat of universal health insurance and care.

    The big problem is American health care is how from the seventies on it has been captured by rent seeking, starting with doctors, then hospitals, drug companies, medical device suppliers, and finally insurance companies as anti-trust enforcement has stopped and the rent seeking groups become more and more politically powerful (see “Citizens United”). Build on the platform of the ACA; e.g. create a “public option” insurance, perhaps lower Medicare Age to 55, authorize Medicare and Medicaid and VA to negotiate drug prices, increase patients options to seek care at lower cost medical providers outside U.S., and use prizes and awards for new drugs and medical devices in place of patents are ways to slow cost increases and increase quality care.

  191. 191.

    steverinoCT

    March 30, 2017 at 2:58 pm

    @Roger Moore:

    One of the key things they’ve learned about opiates, though, is that they have a low risk of abuse and addiction when they’re used for acute pain, like surgery or a broken bone. People use them to deal with the pain, then stop easily when the pain goes away. There’s a worry about doctors giving patients more pills than they need because of problems with the excess being diverted to addicts, but addiction is not a serious risk.

    This was my experience after knee surgery: I had oxycodone, and after a day and a half I switched to Tylenol. Never had much pain, which is the point of it, but also no warm fuzzies or any other effect.

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