Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Come on, man.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

The republican speaker is a slippery little devil.

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

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

Wake up. Grow up. Get in the fight.

Bark louder, little dog.

Fight for a just cause, love your fellow man, live a good life.

Let’s bury these fuckers at the polls 2 years from now.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

Pelosi: “He either is stupid, or he thinks the rest of us are.” Why not both?

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

“woke” is the new caravan.

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

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

You are either for trump or for democracy. Pick one.

He imagines himself as The Big Bad, Who Is Universally Feared… instead of The Big Jagoff, Who Is Universally Mocked.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

This really is a full service blog.

You are here: Home / Things were bad but things got changed

Things were bad but things got changed

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Ultimately, the reason I can’t get with the whole Democrats are neoliberal shills thing is shit like this:

As legislators and the executive branch renew their efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act this week, they might want to keep in mind a little-known financial consequence of the ACA: Since its adoption, far fewer Americans have taken the extreme step of filing for personal bankruptcy.

Filings have dropped about 50 percent, from 1,536,799 in 2010 to 770,846 in 2016 (see chart, below). Those years also represent the time frame when the ACA took effect. Although courts never ask people to declare why they’re filing, many bankruptcy and legal experts agree that medical bills had been a leading cause of personal bankruptcy before public healthcare coverage expanded under the ACA. Unlike other causes of debt, medical bills are often unexpected, involuntary, and large.

The whole fucking point of the Democratic party is to help with situations like this. Would single payer be better? Of course. But 750K fewer bankruptcies is a big fucking deal, and we all owe Obama and Democrats a big thanks for passing ACA. People got voted out of office for supporting it, and Obama’s favorability took a hit for passing it. But they did it anyway because it was the right thing to do.

Update. The best thing we can do to preserve ACA is win a couple special elections. You can give to Rob Quist who’s running for the House seat in Montana, here.

Goal Thermometer

Reader Interactions

105Comments

  8. 8.

    ArchTeryx

    And it’s currently saving my life. Would have saved me from near-medical bankruptcy, too, when the Crohn’s took off while I was on grad student junk insurance. I’m still paying those bills (and my student loans) off on basically no income.

    Obamacare/ACA did not come any too soon, and it was too late for countless hundreds of thousands who died simply because of a lack of money. Like I almost did (and may soon anyway, if the ACA is repealed).

  11. 11.

    PsiFighter37

    @chopper: What really annoys me is that I am seeing the typical white Berniebro fanboys getting worked up about that. They can go kindly fuck themselves. Honestly – what Bernie and his crew are doing to the Democratic Party is nearly as bad as what Corbyn has done to Labour. It is a small blessing that he is not in charge of anything. Tom Perez would be smart to keep him at arm’s length after this bullshit ‘unity’ tour is done.

  15. 15.

    Davis X. Machina

    @PsiFighter37 Exactly. And are the commanding heights of the economy in production, distribution, and finance in the hands of the workers? No!

    Has Obama even now, ever, even once, called upon us to expropriate the expropriators?
    I mean, that’s the least we had a right to expect.

  16. 16.

    Davis X. Machina

    @PsiFighter37:

    what Bernie and his crew are doing to the Democratic Party is nearly as bad as what Corbyn has done to Labour.

    The real split on the left — not just here — is between people who want a vanguard party, and people who want a mass party. Always has been. In country after country. For decade after decade.

    We’re essentially still fighting, a hundred and twenty years on, over whether M. Millerand should accept a ministerial portfolio in the Waldeck-Rousseau government.

  29. 29.

    sharl

    Well this is weird – has Melania’s twitter account been hacked, or is this real feelz?

    Ben Dreyfuss‏ @bendreyfuss

    SIREN: Melania Trump just faved this tweet about how much she hates Donald Trump {tweet blockquoted below} via @alexlitel & @dietcockAndy

    Andy Ostroy @AndyOstroy

    Seems the only #Wall @realDonaldTrump’s built is the one between him and @FLOTUS #Melania #trump

  30. 30.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym

    I’ll disagree on the superiority of single payer, at least in the short term. One thing that must happen if we want true universal health care is that the amount we pay doctors (at least in many specialties) and hospitals has to go down. We cannot have European style coverage if we’re paying 50% more for care.

    Unfortunately, Congress has proven itself totally useless at reining in the cost of care. The ease with which they pass the Medicare “fix” every time it’s needed demonstrates that. Given the extent to which the public has a much higher opinion of doctors than it does of legislators, controlling costs is a job that Congress can’t do. It needs a bad guy, and insurance companies are the only bad guys available for the task. The amount of collateral damage they do in the process is a real problem, but someone has to do it.

  31. 31.

    SiubhanDuinne

    O/T as all fuck, but I just realized I made a terrible mistake and owe someone a big apology!

    For some reason I briefly managed to conflate Ruth Marcus and Jen Rubin — although I know perfectly well they are two totally separate people — and in an earlier thread this morning or yesterday said either something nice about one of them or something nasty about the other, when I should have done exactly the opposite.

    What a maroon.

  33. 33.

    efgoldman

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    My mom still has hers. It was a wedding present in 1964.

    We have (and use) mrs efg’s grandmother’s waffle iron. It’s old enough that it has a fabric-covered cord and a round plug.

  35. 35.

    sharl

    @SiubhanDuinne: LOL, indeed. A third possibility one of its discoverers suggested is the accidental “Like”, which is certainly a thing that happens.
    Whatever it is, it has been up for at least an hour.

  36. 36.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @SiubhanDuinne: Jen’s earned her brick-bats over the years. Also, she is anti-Trunp, but that doesn’t make her someone who is on our side. And ally of convenience, at best, to be watched carefully for when she reverts. Ruth is an ass.

  37. 37.

    efgoldman

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    I briefly managed to conflate Ruth Marcus and Jen Rubin — although I know perfectly well they are two totally separate people

    Do you? For sure? Have you ever seen both of them in the same room at the same time?

  40. 40.

    msdc

    @PsiFighter37:

    What really annoys me is that I am seeing the typical white Berniebro fanboys getting worked up about that.

    One of them I know recently complained about this with the excuse that “We need him to be an elder statesman, at least for the next few years.”

    If they had shown him the slightest modicum of respect when he actually was president, if they had ever, EVER had his back, maybe we wouldn’t need to worry so much about the next few years.

  41. 41.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    More ivory, I would say. They probably called it “Winter Wheat” or something back in those glorious days of “Golden Harvest” and “Avocado” kitchen appliances.

  45. 45.

    Ohio Mom

    @schrodingers_cat: I don’t know about the off-white plates that are purposefully primitive, that look like they were handmade by a not-so-skilled potter, but the white ones with the blue squiggles and drips are Crate and Barrel. If my past experience with C&B place settings holds, it will all be chipped in five years. It’s not exactly heirloom stuff, it’s “affordable,”
    that is, it is cheap and essentially disposable.

    Such a weird registry. I mean, they are established adults and they are asking for beginner cookbooks? Don’t they already have two kitchens full of stuff?

  46. 46.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    TBH, mine lives in the back of a cupboard these days, and it would be a huge PITA to get it out to check the model number. And the warranty/instruction/recipe booklet has long since vanished. But there probably weren’t all that many options available.

    When you next talk to your mom, ask her if she received an inordinate number of crêpe makers as wedding gifts. Ken and I got three — two electric and one stovetop. That seems to have been the “original” and “imaginative” gift that was everyone’s default that year.

  47. 47.

    Sab

    @efgoldman: We have my grandmother’s waffle iron also. Afraid to use it. May try now. If we burn the house down would that be your fault?

  48. 48.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Ohio Mom: I didn’t have proper kitchen and dining stuff except some okay knives that I kept razor sharp until I got married. I was 40. (Oh, yeah, I had wine and cocktail glasses too.)

  49. 49.

    Mnemosyne

    @Ohio Mom:

    We’ve had our C&B stuff over ten years and it’s holding up fine, except for the ones we broke and dropped. One or two plates seem to have stress fractures.

    Such a weird registry. I mean, they are established adults and they are asking for beginner cookbooks? Don’t they already have two kitchens full of stuff?

    That’s what I was thinking, too.

  52. 52.

    efgoldman

    @Sab:

    If we burn the house down would that be your fault?

    Nothing is ever my fault [/channeling Mango Malignancy]

  54. 54.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @SiubhanDuinne: Their wedding was done at rather short notice. They got married in January of ’64 and you know what happened in early August of that year.

  56. 56.

    dmsilev

    @SFAW: My mom still has her Kitchenaid mixer that her mother gave her roughly around the time I was born. I’m in my mid 40s; the mixer is still going strong.

  57. 57.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Mnemosyne:

    Does that mean that his ex got to keep everything?

    I assume so. He was leaving to marry his “assistant.”

  58. 58.

    sharl

    @sharl: Melania’s intriguing twitter “Like” has been disappeared; order has been restored to the Universe.

  60. 60.

    SFAW

    @dmsilev:

    Not surprised.

    We have an Oster smaller, more recent version. It’s OK for what it’s called upon to do, but it’s not the kind of thing you build your kitchen around, so to speak.

  62. 62.

    Sab

    @efgoldman: I do remember my mother swearing amazingly when she tried to get the waffles out. What do you do to keep things from Sticking? My guess is she didn’t give the waffle iron the respectful treatment she gave to the cast iron frying pans.

  63. 63.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Mnemosyne: Yeah, if you want an elder statesperson, I have a few suggestions. BHO? HRC? Even WJC? All three with better success records and closer ties to the Democratic Party than others.

  64. 64.

    Yarrow

    @Mnemosyne:

    Yes, but you (and I assume your wife) were getting married for the first time. This is Bobo’s second marriage. Does that mean that his ex got to keep everything?

    If he had an affair and left her, she might have kept all his money. He might not have as much stuff as we think.

  66. 66.

    Mnemosyne

    I should be working on the outline for my novel, and instead I keep poking at the troll in another thread. Sigh.

    But my train retreat is happening on Saturday, so I won’t have any options but to write. This will be the one time I’ll be grateful for Amtrak’s crappy wi-fi.

  69. 69.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    I’ll be willing to listen to the “neoliberal” frame the day the “revolutionaries” pass single-payer and free college tuition in deep, deep, deep blue Vermont or Berkeley.

    Until then they’re just do-nothing wankers.

  72. 72.

    danielx

    @Yarrow:

    He might not have as much stuff as we think.

    I am reasonably sure he is not walking around with holes in his shoes, especially if he hid some assets (like any good Republican).

  80. 80.

    Yarrow

    @danielx: Me too. But Wife Number One might have kept the house and most of the stuff in it. He’s hardly poor, though. I’m shedding no tears for them.

  81. 81.

    Corner Stone

    Let’s see if we get an Ivanka PR fluffer story on BriWi’s MSNBC…

    Baited breath…

  82. 82.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    @Yarrow: But he’s made some controversial comments that will haunt him:

    “The babes back then were a sight to behold,” said Biden, recalling one particular “fiery redheaded number” named Starla who “showed [him] a thing or two” about where to get hot and heavy on the beach without the cops noticing. “They were everywhere—rollerblading in their tight little frosted jean shorts and bikini tops, or kicking back beachside with Van Halen’s 5150 blasting on the boombox. And with my Trans Am purring, I had the pick of the litter.”

    “You could almost see their panties getting soaked when I’d rev the V8,”Biden continued. “Drilled a few holes in the muffler to get that rumble that really gets their juices flowing. Wasn’t exactly street legal, but it got me down and dirty more times than I can count.”

  83. 83.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Davis X. Machina:

    Has Obama even now, ever, even once, called upon us to expropriate the expropriators?

    You say this as a joke, but I think there’s a large nugget of truth. The consistent theme I got from the whiners during Obama’s presidency, and Sanders’ supporters both insane and merely idealistic (the latter voted Hillary), is that they believe the rich are The Enemy. If you are not framing the issue that way, if you are not trying to tear down the rich, you must be supporting them in oppressing everyone else. No approach to banking other than jailing bankers or breaking up banks seems believable to them. Since Obama and Hillary don’t care about the rich either way, only about protecting and uplifting everyone else, they become ‘neoliberals.’

  84. 84.

    danielx

    Workers of the world unite, my ass….I still remember talking to UAW guys who thought Ronald Reagan was the greatest thing to ever come down the pike.

  85. 85.

    Mnemosyne

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I am apparently a lying liar who lies about everything because the Sanders-supported candidate in Tulsa only supported voluntary vaginal ultrasounds before abortions that women totally wouldn’t have felt pressured into doing. And, sure, Mello voted to ban abortion after 20 weeks, but Sanders is still a better supporter of abortion rights than Hillary!

    The flailing is making me laugh, so I keep poking.

  89. 89.

    Mnemosyne

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    I keep hoping to goad him into going all Rumplestiltskin:

    in his rage drove his right foot so far into the ground that it sank in up to his waist; then in a passion he seized the left foot with both hands and tore himself in two

  90. 90.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Mnemosyne:
    Alas, I don’t think that’s likely. If I am remembering NR’s comment history correctly, it is not just a troll, but a deliberate ratfucker, and to some extent you are playing into its hands. There was a small set of commenters during Obama’s presidency who zeroed in on threads about a Democrat doing something nice, and derailed them into arguments about whether their bitching was justified. Whether motivated by politics or mean-spiritedness, the goal was clear, to not allow us to feel good about the Democratic Party. I’m pretty sure NR was one of those.

  92. 92.

    Mnemosyne

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    There was a small set of commenters during Obama’s presidency who zeroed in on threads about a Democrat doing something nice, and derailed them into arguments about whether their bitching was justified. Whether motivated by politics or mean-spiritedness, the goal was clear, to not allow us to feel good about the Democratic Party. I’m pretty sure NR was one of those.

    Yes, he definitely was. He’s been here for quite a long time, running down Democrats.

    But I figure that if he’s busy whining about how mmmeeeeaaannnn I am to him, he doesn’t have time to whine about anything else.

  94. 94.

    Yarrow

    @Mnemosyne: I figure he’s some Russian troll. So your efforts to keep him busy arguing with you are in patriotic service of the USA. If he’s arguing with you, he’s less busy arguing somewhere else. You’re a true patriot!

  98. 98.

    AxelFoley

    @msdc:

    If they had shown him the slightest modicum of respect when he actually was president, if they had ever, EVER had his back, maybe we wouldn’t need to worry so much about the next few years.

    This. ALL THIS.

  99. 99.

    Juju

    @SFAW: I have a cuisinart food processor that was purchased in 1981. I love it and wouldn’t part with it. Cuisinart went downhill quality-wise when ConAire took over.

  100. 100.

    NR

    @Mnemosyne:

    The flailing is making me laugh, so I keep poking.

    Calling out your lies is flailing now? Interesting.

    Your view of the world is… special, to say the least.

  101. 101.

    Judson Mahany

    I wouldn’t look for the gop to show any “backbone” in standing against the trump mess. He is doing boldly and outrageously exactly what they have always wanted to do but were afraid to do. I can just see them hiding their faces behind their hands and sniggering joyfully because they are in a position to get everything they want and avoiding blame.

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