I still have to figure where there’s a Mitch, there’s a way, but….
.@SenatorCollins to @GStephanopoulos: "The Senate bill is going to have more impact on the Medicaid program than even the House bill." pic.twitter.com/AVYgzbTun6
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) June 25, 2017
JPL
If Collins were serious, she’d switch parties.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
That’s only two no votes so Mitch can still squeak it threw at 50 + 1 the VP and claim MANDATE!
It’s clear the Mitch and Ryan have gone full Blue Brother (less the music) and don’t care how much damage they do to everything on their mission from God.
mai naem mobile
Suzee Q will fold. She always does. As will Jeff’stroke my chin’Flake . He was at the Koch Whore confab this w/e. I am couting on Heller. Adam Laxalt was at confab as well.
germy
Davis X. Machina
Medicaid expansion is on the ballot here by initiative petition.
Governor Raging Hemorrhoid vetoed it six times — it had a bipartisan majority.
66,000 signatures put it on the ballot.
Maine’s already spoken. Its position on Medicaid is clear.
This state is older than nearly every other state, the poorest and sickest in the Northeast, and has an opioid crisis as bad as Ohio or West Virginia, just not as well-covered.
If she entertains any hope of running for governor in 2018 — and it’s an open secret — that’s 66,000 votes she can piss away in a heartbeat. Fealty to Mitch McConnell isn’t going to put her in the Blaine House.
MomSense
@Davis X. Machina:
Have you checked out the infant mortality rates in the rim counties? We used to have one of the lowest infant mortality rates in the nation before Governor ass face.
BBA
KAYFABE.
Corner Stone
@mai naem mobile:
Both will fold, I agree. Heller will get the No release and I think Rand Paul will just take the other one and FU Turtle.
Every other warbling wobbler will fold like a cheap suit when Mitch adds $2B for their pet cause. That will give the bill “heart” and stop it from being “mean”. They can then stroll their way to the floor and vote Yes.
tobie
Has Murkowski said anything about the GOP unHealthcare proposal yet? She’s another possible no vote, as are Rand Paul and Mike Lee.
BBA
To continue the wrestling analogy, some senators will get smacked with folding chairs, which is completely legitimate as long as the parliamentarian isn’t looking.
JMG
Collins would have to eat an OED full of words if she votes “yes.” She’s been able to finesse her basic four-flusher nature up until now, but this one would be hard to “moderate” away.
MomSense
Well her concerns are now “very serious” but still holding at “wait and see” on the vote. Good to know. I will continue to futilely call her offices so I can hear that sweet, automated voice tell me the voicemail box is full.
TriassicSands
But if Mitch will throw a buck eighty at Medicaid, then I could change my mind. For now, I have to continue to pretend to be a responsible person who cares about all those nasty poor people.
Sadly, this is what our hopes depend on. Will it be one of the radical crazies like Paul or Cruz who just can’t stomach anything this generous or one of the concern trolls like Collins who always spend more time wringing their hands than they do voting for legislation that would make a difference.
In the end, a “NO” vote is a “NO” vote and just three of them will stop this train wreck.
ArchTeryx
Yeah, “Republicans fall in line” is the safe bet to take every time. Even when a bill that amounts to a “softer” Aktion T4 is what’s being voted on.
But the one complication I can see is that Nevada is now voting on universal Medicaid, and Maine is about to take the Medicaid expansion by initiative…just as it is taken away from them. I have to believe that the former is part of why Heller is now a hard no. Collins probably thinks she can fool enough of her voters to put her into Blaine House, just as she’s fooled them over and over and over again every time she’s up for re-election. She might be right. Voters don’t miss what they don’t have. But when the nastygrams start going out telling people they are no longer eligible for Medicaid? By the tens of millions?
That’s what nobody can predict. What these people are going to do.
If I were a state like New York, I’d mail out those nastygrams as soon as this monstrosity passes, to every Medicaid recipient in the state – and mail voter registration forms along with them. It won’t change the makeup of the Senate, but it might just swing some of those rural NY House races.
JMG
No Senator in the position of the “wait and sees” on any vote, regardless of their party, is going to tip their hand until the last possible moment. It’s just the way it works. Remember Ben Nelson futzing around about ACA and prior to that the stimulus?
MattF
@mai naem mobile: I agree. ‘Moderate’ Republicans always fold. It’s their defining characteristic; otherwise they’d either not be moderate or not be Republican.
Baud
@JMG:
“We had to do something because Obamacare was failing, and Democrats wouldn’t help us at all.”
That said, I don’t want to predict how she’ll vote or if she’ll be punished by the voters if she votes for this thing. The one thing about these “moderates” is that they are in fact waiting to see if the bill will fail anyway because three other Senators will vote against it. Then they can decide if they want to burnish their moderate cred with a free vote, or instead appeal to the right-wing base.
Hal
This alone should end Mitch McConnell’s career. But hey, at least his wife got a cush job with the Trump admin.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/obama-orders-review-of-russian-hacking-during-presidential-campaign/2016/12/09/31d6b300-be2a-11e6-94ac-3d324840106c_story.html?utm_term=.d8607ccc6bad
ArchTeryx
@Baud: With Susie Q, the right-wing base alone will NOT put her in the governor’s mansion. Nor is it enough for her re-election – she depends on “independents” every time, and they seem to be happy to ignore her party-line voting record. Whether they’ll continue ignoring it when they all lose Medicaid is the question of the hour, politically.
MomSense
@ArchTeryx:
It’s just so uncivil, AT to compare this bill in any way to any kind of governmental decision to kill people. I mean not everyone is a winner in the free market but everyone has the freedom to participate or not in free market solutions because they are free! People who take personal responsibility will be winners!
ArchTeryx
@MomSense: I still can’t believe that on an ostensibly left-wing site, that someone thought to refute me using the classic old right-wing trope the Starving Children In Africa. (I.e., under my definition, the fact we don’t feed the starving around the world makes us mass murderers! And so withholding healthcare from our own citizenry is no different then us choosing not to feed the starving around the world!)
The idea that there is absolutely no difference between ‘benign neglect’ and ‘malign neglect’ is a rather shocking argument for a bunch of lawyers to make, but there you have it.
It’s gotten on LGM that I can’t tell the trolls from the actual commenters.
Original Lee
Man, I had a few hours of cautious optimism because I saw some stories that there were 5 Republican Senators willing to vote No. I should stop growing hope before I get it crushed by coming over here. I’m trying to convince my mom, who lives in a red state, to call both of her Senators tomorrow. She is reluctant because she doesn’t want to be targeted for expressing a contrary opinion. I wish I could reassure her that she’s too poor and too old for blowback, but I can’t.
JPL
@MomSense: It’s not about a free market when there are so few players. Insurance companies are consolidating. Hospitals are consolidating, and doctors don’t advertise their fees. If I’m sick and in need of care, I’m not calling around to check prices.
I hate the asses who try to talk about the free market.
MattF
@MomSense: Well, you see, if you act as though you’re wealthy, you are on the road to wealth. I know that’s true because it’s what the guy standing on the soap box is saying.
Corner Stone
@MomSense:
They really don’t like it when D’s use this sharp language. They were all trying to decry the overheated rhetoric after the Scalise shooting and this was one of the key things they were trying to get the media to accept and pushback – that we shouldn’t be saying people are going to die to because of a bill. It just wasn’t fair, I tell you. So mean of us to describe it truthfully.
Baud
@ArchTeryx: LGM has a lot of trolls. I understand the argument, but the U.S. Government has more of a moral responsibility with respect to the American people than it does to people in other countries.
Davis X. Machina
And registered Democrats, especially women. That one vote she cast 20 years ago against her party for the Family an Medical Leave Act is the only one a lot of people remember. That and voting against opening ANWR to drilling.
Has us pulling out hair out every month at county committee.
germy
@ArchTeryx: LGM is an odd place. I love reading some of the commenters but there’s a small (but vocal) few of them who I find completely obnoxious. Not just the obvious trolls, but the snobs and the educated-but-clueless.
Corner Stone
@JPL:
That’s one of Rand Paul’s favorite tricks. To use the price shopping for lasik surgery to healthcare consumption in general. Never once mentioning that a sick person isn’t going to shop for price like an elective operation choice.
JPL
Trump is teetering on the edge emotionally, and it might be time for President Obama to give an interview to one of the network stations. just sayin
MattF
@germy: Also, perhaps coincidentally, LGM is living proof that thread-centered comment sections are a bad idea.
germy
@Corner Stone: Bleeding out in an ambulance, they expect me to ask for the price and then demand to be let out if it’s too high. “I’ll find a more reasonable ambulance service!”
Corner Stone
@Original Lee:
It’s a sham and a flim flam scam. Mitch will throw $2B into the bill, probably stretched over 10 years, and they will all vote Yes.
randy khan
@ArchTeryx:
So I read that thread. It’s not nearly as bad as you claim. People disagreed with you. It happens.
Original Lee
@Corner Stone: Likely. He’ll raid Social Security to do it, and then push a bill to privatize SS because the money’s all gone.
Corner Stone
@germy: “I beg your pardon, sir! $2500 for an ambulance ride?! I think not. Now, please mop my brow of this pesky bloodflow so that I may see my phone to use my Uber app. Thank you, and Good Day. I said good day sir!”
kindness
I have no faith in Collins to do the right thing in any situation. She says moderate things but never follows through when it matters. She’ll vote with Republicans unless there is a case when they don’t need her vote then occasionally she will vote against it. But even then it’s a meaningless gesture. Everyone knows Mitch gave her clearance to make a show of it. On every vote that actually mattered she caves and votes for the Dark Side of the Force.
Baud
@Corner Stone: I’ll need to invest in chickens.
MattF
@Baud: But watch out– if the chickens offering their services have agents, your offer may not be profitable after the middle-chickens have taken their cut.
MomSense
@ArchTeryx:
Ah yes the tone police hate it when you disrupt their peace.
RepubAnon
@BBA: It’s all reality show suspense theater: they’ll allow enough of the most-threatened Republican Senators to lower their margin to 50 votes – then bring in Pence to break the tie.
Baud
@MattF: Nothing worse than a chicken with an MBA.
MomSense
@Corner Stone:
Speakinf of that shooting, my prediction about the GOP response seems to be coming true. They are proposing increased security for members of Congress.
germy
@Baud:
You’d have a nice little nest egg.
Baud
@MomSense: At least no one is treating them like children.
MomSense
@Baud:
Devastating.
Corner Stone
@MattF:
Wait a second. Are you telling me that chickens are now forming health insurance co-ops?
JPL
@germy: If you weren’t able to drive yourself, you could always thumb a ride. That’s personal responsibility.
Corner Stone
I absolutely love these Susan Lucci soap opera commercials for Progressive.
germy
@JPL:
If both my legs are broken, I can go to the “walk in clinic.”
JPL
@Corner Stone: That’s the American “can do” spirit. You are a true patriot.
Cheryl Rofer
@JMG:
and @Baud:
Both good points. I have been tweeting at Collins, not that she or any of her aides will listen. I am so sick of the Republican concern troll posse.
germy
@Corner Stone:
I usually hate commercials, but I like the Progressive Flo commercials. The actress who portrays Flo is a talented stand up comedian, and the commercials featuring her dysfunctional family have her playing every role.
Fair Economist
It does seem like there’s a lot of serious objections – right now Heller, Lee, and Collins sound like they won’t vote for the bill, and I don’t see how Murkowski can given how brutally Alaskans are attacked by Trumpcare. In addition there are several more at significant “concern” levels – Johnson, Portman, Cruz, and Cotton. 3 no votes is failure and it looks hard for McConnell to deal with all that. But I note Collins used the future tense rather than the conditional.
gene108
@Davis X. Machina:
The governor in Kentucky ran on a platform of taking away the Medicaid expansion and won on it.
For whatever reason, voters – especially right-wing voters – are totally disconnected from the impact of policy on their lives and how that will determine their vote. They seem to just want to stick it to their perceived enemies.
germy
@Cheryl Rofer:
debbie
@Corner Stone:
Agreed. “I stayed with you when you had amnesia!” “You know I can’t remember that!”
debbie
@germy:
Susan Lucci: Worth the watch.
Kathleen
@germy:
Bobby Thomson
@mai naem mobile: Heller is the only one who could possibly lose next year so he will be the only No vote. If they needed his vote, he would be voting Yes.
rikyrah
@gene108:
Let’s be honest
These are the rubes that swore up and down that the Kynect they loved had absolutely nothing to do with Obamacare, which they hated. I blame Kentucky Democrats for letting that shyt flourish.
Bobby Thomson
@Fair Economist: naw. Just for show. Remember Josh Marshall’s Law. “Moderate” Republicans always cave.
Corner Stone
@debbie: “Oh come on, Susan Lucci!”
Another Scott
@JPL: TheHill:
I haz a confuzzle. Mitch said that the vote would be “before July 4”. This (work) week isn’t even the start of July.
Looking at the Calendar (40 page .pdf), they’ll be working Tuesday – Friday. They’ll be on break July 3 – 9. So, if they don’t extend the timeline, Friday June 30 is the day. Or, indeed, this week.
It’s not like the Senate has actual business to do, but their recesses always come first.
(sigh)
But in this case, some aspects of the calendar work for our benefit. If Schumer and the rest succeed in delaying a vote, then it will be much more difficult for Mitch to force it through.
Ron Johnson (R-WI):
We can’t assume we’ve won yet. We have to keep fighting. Mitch is sneaky… It’s not dead until it’s dead (remember the House bill failed once).
We’ll see.
Keep fighting!
Cheers,
Scott.
Kathleen
@gene108: AKA “The Blahs”.
germy
WaPo
Cheryl Rofer
@germy: Yup
Another Scott
@debbie: The little twitch of her head at the end makes it. Hehe.
Cheers,
Scott.
Marcopolo
Last minute, but for St Louis folks there is a “emergency health care postcard signing party” today from 3-7. I’ll be there from 3-4. It’s centrally located at a substance abuse rehab place not too far from the I64/170 interchange. There will be refreshments. Here are the details:
https://www.mobilizemo.org/event/emergency-healthcare-postcard-party/
If you can drop by, please do. I realize we won’t be changing Blunt’s vote no matter what we do but every R senator should know how many of their constituents are against this POS bill. Plus you’ll get a chance to meet some of your comrades in arms and learn what other stuff is going on to resist Trump & the R Congress.
Also too, hope everyone is having a decent weekend (or indecent if that is what floats your boat).
? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?
@germy: Like they give a shot about outcomes or quality of care
SatanicPanic
@Corner Stone: yeah this kind of argument from the libertarians is so stupid. Yes, the market works just fine for boob jobs and LASIK. In fact, the prices for these always seem to be dropping. The magic of the market- it works when you can walk away. Not so great when you can’t.
trollhattan
@Corner Stone:
Which is how I ended up arriving at the ER in the back seat of a ’97 Camry (“No blood on the front seat, maaaaan!”) paying surge pricing, because it was game night.
germy
@? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?:
Well, I know what the outcome is for someone without insurance.
What does he mean about outcomes? The size of his tax break? Why shouldn’t the number of people who have insurance be the main focus?
schrodingers_cat
Susan Collins is a phony. I have never much liked her, I have no idea what Mainers see in her.
Also, let’s not declare pre-emptive defeat, and do MC’s work for him. Its not done until its done.
StringOnAStick
I suspect that while we are focusing on the families and young people who will be hurt by gutting Medicaid, what the R’s see is that 64% of the elderly in nursing homes are dependent on Medicaid. With Boomers rapidly aging into that group and with middle class assets declining, our expensive health care system becomes even shakier. I’m sure Medicare is next up for cuts but given the blowback the AHCA is causing, it will require even greater sneakiness; all that rich prick money will no doubt help concentrate their focus
Years ago I went to a presentation at a D senator’s office about Simpson-Bowles. What animated that commission then as now was the trend for Medicaid and especially Medicare. Thanks to all the new heart and circulation drugs is people live much longer than they used to and the Koch party sees that as too many useless eaters, and expensive ones at that. I went to a joint replacement surgeons presentation about knees last year, and he started his slide deck with the trends in need, cost and projected costs, stating that this is why Medicare has to be killed. Too a room full of Medicare aged people! Not a one thought his comments applied to them, they just wanted to hear about other ways to deal with their knee pain. Ortho docs trend most heavily R of the specialists but that still stunned me.
The rich bastards funding the R’s see this as their last chance to gut paying for medical Care for the poor and the retired, and their purchased politicians are pulling out all the stops. Trump gave them the perfect opening because he’s such a continuous shit show that he provides lots of distraction. We can’t let them continue to think we aren’t watching.
trollhattan
@germy:
The valuelessness of ISIL is verified by the fact they never target this little kaffeklatch. Fvckers.
Another Scott
RollCall:
(Emphasis added.)
If that’s right, then the CBO isn’t going to be scoring the “final” Senate bill. They’re scoring a pig-in-a-poke. Which isn’t really surprising. The Teabaggers have no respect for the actual rules about legislation.
And people apparently are willing to vote on it on the promise that money will be included in the budget bills and not in the BCRAP bill itself. Of course, since there’s little to no expectation that Congress can pass a budget (and may not even be able to pass a Continuing Resolution), that would seem to be a transparent fig-leaf.
(sigh)
No matter what happens this week, it’s not over. They will try to ram something through. We have to keep fighting.
Cheers,
Scott.
germy
@trollhattan: If that ever happened we’d see an immediate boots on the ground war. Because those brothers (and the “M” family) are who “we’re” fighting for.
NorthLeft12
Anyone who is crazy enough to believe in the mythical creature that is called the “moderate Republican” might also believe that Ms. Collins will vote No on this bill. I was going to say that she will be bought off, but I think she will just fall in line when McConnell tells her how to vote.
john fremont
@Corner Stone: “Hey, tell the pilot to land this chopper and let me off! You guys are out of network!” Said no one ever involved in near fatal car accidents on the interstate.
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2016/01/air-ambulance-helicopter-cost/425061/
Tripod
@germy:
They pulled this shit in the first House go around.
I bet those fuckers are leveraging some part Obamacare, and are playing the marks for fun and profit.
Corner Stone
@trollhattan: “Surge pricing plus cracked and bloody skull says this will cost you $2450 to get to the ER.”
“Well, that’s a definitive cost savings over the $2500 the highly skilled EMTs were going to rip me off for! Let’s be on our way, young gig economy entrepreneur!”
? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?
@Another Scott: They can’t be allowed to get away with voting to kill people. Anybody, myself included at almost 22, could get really sick at any time. Even getting voted out of office isn’t enough; they’ll just get cushy private sector jobs
germy
@Tripod:
It’s marks all the way down.
Corner Stone
@john fremont: “Sir, we have to inject this incredibly expensive but 100% effective serum into your heart in the next ten seconds or you will die!”
“What other drugs can you offer me at step pricing compared to their relative efficacy?”
James Powell
@germy:
I like the writers at LGM, but you are right, the comments can get pretty awful. Every once in a while there is an interesting, informative discussion, but usually if there are more than 30-40 comments, I don’t bother with them.
mai naem mobile
Heller is either getting a pass or really against the bill to save his own ass but I wonder if the Kochs are prepping Laxalt to primary Heller.I am surprised to see Flake at the Koch conference,not because I think he’s a moderate, but because you would think he wouldn’t want to show off his Koch credentials at this point. That worries me because it might mean he doesn’t intend on running in ’18 or he’s worried about a primary from the right.
James Powell
@kindness:
When has she ever done the right thing instead of the Republican thing?
D58826
@JPL: I’d settle for a plain and simply statement of NO on this bill in any way shape or form.
Davis X. Machina
@James Powell: Just often enough to reliably pull 20-25% of registered Democrats.
Barbara
@JMG: She is simply a coward. When Dems had a majority she could vote with Rs without consequence, and when Rs had a bigger majority she could be the virtue vote without impact. Now that her vote has actual consequences she tuts and dithers without standing up clearly for her constituents, none of whom would punish her for voting no. Maine and West Virginia are the oldest average states in the nation (even if Florida and Arizona have more old people, they also have more young people) and they have large rural areas. This is about as clear as it gets whether you care for your constituents or not. Capito is going to fail, ass wipe that she is, but Collins will destroy her entire reputation if she votes yes.
germy
@James Powell: The format is awkward for me. I can never tell who is responding to who.
Some great commenters over there, but a few I find tiresome.
Corner Stone
I don’t know how that will be a key question since there are no R moderates and therefore they do not represent any people in any states.
Another Scott
@germy:
It’s just more of their buzzword bingo to try to frame the discussion.
ModernHealthCare:
Yeah, everyone complains that their health care isn’t “flexible” enough.
“Hey, I got leukemia and I’ll have to sell my home, car, and clothes, declare bankruptcy, and live in a cardboard box if I’m not given more flexibility!!11”
(sigh)
Cheers,
Scott.
? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?
@mai naem mobile: Now that you bring that up, I wonder if there isn’t a way to try to sabotage Koch and other RW oligarch operations to make them less effective in primaring (sp?) more moderate ( I know) Republicans in Congress and elsewhere.
D58826
@john fremont: Well obviously that family exercised no (in the words of our VP) personal responsibility in bring such a defective child into the world.
But for the rest of us that smile just lights up your day and are glad is is healthy.
James Powell
@Davis X. Machina:
But I can’t think of a single time that Collins voted with Obama/Democrats on a significant issue. Is there one I forgot?
Kay
Health care was always “available” to all Americans. It’s a ridiculous weasel word and so obviously misleading.
Trump lied about Medicaid. He lied to tens of millions of his voters and now they will lose their health care coverage. A lot of other people who didn’t vote for him will also lose, but he is screwing his own base and he did it without a backward look. Arguably he’s killing his own voters. They’re not healthy people! Let’s not kid ourselves here. They have heart disease, diabetes, opiate addictions, they smoke, and they have horrible diets. Liberal elites won’t be dropping off like flies because of this- Trump voters will.
Corner Stone
According to Cole’s twit feed it seems the pernicious gays are at it again. However, after reviewing the Gay Agenda if we could actually make every Tuesday a Taco Tuesday I think I could welcome our new gay overlords. I like the idea of brunch better than actually going for brunch, but if it were now mandated to be a Gay Brunch I think that may actually improve the odds of attendance.
Patricia Kayden
@JPL: Or actually vote against Trump instead of voting yes on almost all of his nominations. I wish voters would replace her with a Democrat. Tired of hearing her useless musings.
germy
JPL
Wow! Toomey said on Face the Nation, that the bill keeps the medicaid expansion… He either is lying or didn’t read the bill.
https://twitter.com/ddiamond/status/879000887171088385
? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?
@Kay: This may be the only positive outcome of this mess, as horrible as that is
D58826
@john fremont: Beating a dead horse but I’m sure Cong. Steve Scaliness doesn’t have these kinds of issues with his medical plan. And wasn’t one of the shooting victims air evac-ed off the ball field? Given his injuries might have been Cong. Scaliness.
And just a note – I typed the name Scalise but spell check, being much smarter than I, returned ‘Scaliness’. Appropriate I think
MomSense
@James Powell:
The stimulus.
ETA Repeal of DADT along with Lieberman. She was also expected, along with Lieberman, to vote for cap and trade which had passed the house and was going to the Senate when losingnthe Massachusetrs Senate seat threw everything into disarray.
Another Scott
@germy: Oh, and to answer more directly, the “outcomes” they seek are to reduce the number of non-0.01% people getting any benefit or assistance from the government (federal, state or local). So kicking people off insurance, off SNAP, off school lunches, off FHA mortgages, off Pell Grants, off dialysis, off black-lung treatment, off free public roads, etc., etc., is all the preferred “outcome”. They just don’t like saying so, directly, so they (still) follow Lee Atwater’s old advice.
(sigh)
HTH.
Cheers,
Scott.
Kay
My daughter works in health care and old people are “her” population. She chose to work with them. Elderly people. Aged, not-well people who had hard lives and never had any money- not sprightly golfing “seniors” who travel, but poor, sick old people. She goes into Medicaid long term care facilities in Pittsburgh as part of her work and during the election they were all watching Trump on tv and raving about him. She doesn’t know if they voted for him or even if they vote, but 100% of those people are wholly dependent on Medicaid. He screwed them. I wonder if they know yet.
Davis X. Machina
@James Powell: Expanded background checks for gun sales. ANWR drilling. Family & Medical Leave Act. Repeal of Obama methane rules (That one was last month). Voted against Pruitt for EPA. She’s actually pretty good on environmental stuff. Enough to establish a reputation.
Kay
@JPL:
I hope the Ohio and PA Senators are making a big mistake. I hope they think that because Trump won those two states they can screw Republican voters who depend on Medicaid. There are a LOT of them.
Another Scott
@JPL: Oh, but he’s right – it’s still there!!!11 It’s just the funding falls off a cliff to $0 with a 3 year phase-out. If states want to continue it, that’s their business.
HTH!
(groucho-roll-eyes.gif)
Words mean what they choose them to mean…
Grr.
Cheers,
Scott.
JPL
@Kay: Josh Marshall makes a good point. If they think the changes are so good, why lie about them.
germy
@Kay:
Not if they’re watching fox or sinclair
Kay
@JPL:
You know what I would like to come out of this? I would like Republicans to have to vote for Medicaid because of the political reality of their base, and I would like Republican voters to admit they are dependent on Medicaid. We can stop fighting about it if they quit lying about not needing it. They do need it. They’ve always needed it. They have less money than liberal elites- they require more government assistance. The price they have to pay is stop denying it and stop insisting they don’t get anything from the government. They do.
dww44
@germy: The last time I weighed into the comments at LGM, I was pilloried unmercifully. It was not long after Sally Yates’ firing and I had done some online research about her and her ancestors, specifically because her maiden name was the same as that of a long ago and greatly revered Methodist minister from my childhood. I was endlessly mocked and ridiculed for my Southern focus on ancestors. But it was a Saturday night!
Have not had the courage to weigh in again, although I do read posts there almost daily. I particularly enjoy Campos, Lemieux and even Loomis, even though he tends to also denigrate Southerners. As a liberal one of the latter, I find it off putting.
Mnemosyne
@mai naem mobile:
I’m sure the Nevada Democrats are wishing a motherfucker would. Nevada is rapidly turning blue and pitting a far-right Koch puppet against a Democrat would be more likely to give the Denocrats a victory.
Kay
@JPL:
Because why are we fighting about it? Toomey supports Medicaid. Kasich supports Medicaid. The reason we’re fighting about it is GOP voters have to be coddled and told they don’t receive government handouts, when they do. This fake view they have of themselves as bootstrapping loners is indulgent and childish because it’s false. They can’t keep it and keep the Medicaid they need.
D58826
BY way of Digby Arizona Already Tried What the GOP Wants to Do to Medicaid. It Was a Disaster.
Several years ago, Arizona froze Medicaid enrollment, as AHCA now proposes. The results were disturbing.
germy
@dww44:
And yet balloon-juice commenters are called jackals!
JPL
@Kay: Both of your comments are right. Pence believes in personal responsibility, and so does a large percentage of the people on medicaid. They have the responsibility to feed, to clothe and pay for the living arrangements for their family. There is nothing left for health care.
D58826
@Kay: I’ve mentioned this before but my sister was 20 Navy nurse. Some of her college bills were forgiven by joining the Navy. She has an MBA in medical admin. Her post Navy career was as an administrator in a number of local nursing homes.
And in no particular order she hates with a blinding passionm:
1. the Clintons
2. the Obamas
3. tax and spend liberals ()she wonders why I went over to the dark side)
4. Obamacare
5. voted for Der Fuhrer
6. her Marine corp retiree spouse didn’t vote for Trump but pretty much follows items
1 to 4
In short they have been sucking off that big government teat their entire lives. Now they did think it was unfair that I had to pay out of pocket when my late wife had to go into a nursing home. But that was different -she was ‘deserving’.
IN short my sister and BIL are about as far from economically anxious WWC voters as you can get. Well they do worry about being underwater in the 5 bedroom two car garage house but then we all have some problems in life. Now I don’t think the D’s should write off any segment of voters but I have no idea how you reach voters as willfully blind as my sister and BIL.
Fortunately live 500 miles away from them. Visit once a year at XMAS and just talk about how often the dog needs a belly rub One of the reasons this entire topic reduces me to blind anger
Sab
@Kay: The problem is that Portman seemed to be totally dependent on Americans for Prosperity for his campaign. The voters may forget his vote six years from now if he votes yes, but the Kochs machine sure as hell won’t if he votes no.
Kay
@D58826:
Have any of the younger Republican voters given any thought to where their aged parents will end up when we boot them out of nursing homes? They’re moving in with their grown children- that’s YOU, morons.
Medicaid doesn’t doesn’t just pay for nursing homes. It pays for the parents of middle aged people, so middle aged people don’t have to pay for them.
Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)
@MattF: The real problem isn’t the threads but the weak anti-troll moderation, which makes the comments easily susceptible to hijacking.
Sab
@Kay: They are counting on a Democratic sibling to step up. Republicans probably don’t help their parents unless they live in a state that requires it.
dww44
@D58826: I’ve said this before here but it’s been a couple of years. At my last place of employment, a local financial services brokerage firm, the owner/manager circulated memos among his staff about how to educate their clients on spending down their assets so as to qualify for Medicaid so that the latter would pay for their nursing home care.
I’ve also a very Republican and conservative brother who went to a lot of trouble to qualify our Mom, widowed at 34, for Medicaid. She raised 4 kids by working in a NY owned textile plant that paid only minimum wage and provided no benefits at retirement other than SS. It was good that he did, as she spent 5 1/2 years in one dying at age 94 from dementia. We would have all been bankrupt had we had to pay for it out of pocket.
Suzanne
@Kay:
Hating on Those People is empowering. It feels good to feel superior.
Brothers’ keepers, my arse.
Corner Stone
@dww44:
You know what you did.
D58826
@Kay: Fortunately 2 and maybe all three of their kids have joined me on the dark side. Middle niece and hubby voted for Bernie in the primary. They get away with it because they supply the two grandkids:-). Kind of a political cloaking device.
And maybe it explains why they are climate deniers. They figure there will be more than enough ice flows for every one.
I have no idea what it is that middle aged Republicans think on this subject. It is hard to believe that they are so shortsighted but we have the results of multiple election cycles to show us that they are. They sent Brownbeck, Walker, Christie, etc back for second terms after each one enacted policies that enriched the 1% and screwed every one else.
And other than being a matter of simple greed, even the Koch’s don’t wind up with that much extra money from the tax breaks in Trumpcare. I mean when you are worth 80 billion dollars, what is an extra couple of million in tax breaks. That probably doesn’t pay for the stable fees for the horses. You would think they would be smart enough to figure paying the taxes and leaving Obamacare in place would be a good way to keep the little people from grabbing pitch forks. But maybe they have figured that the little people will never grab the pitch forks as long as you can convince enough of them that it is the OTHERS fault. With enough bread and circuses you can blind them to the fact that they share the same sinking boat as the OTHER.
gene108
Adam Schiff was on CNN’s “State of the Union”. The hostess was egging him on about “did Obama do enough to stop Russian hacking last year” and Schiff started out with Obama did not want to be partisan, tip the election, etc., but she kept egging him on with the sa,e question “did Obama do enough”, but after awhile he was agreeing with the hostess about Obama should’ve done more, with no mention of McConnell torpedoing Obama’s desire for a bipartisan statement.
And if Adam Schiff, who we are all counting on, is falling in line with the conventional wisdom of Trump that it is Obama’s fault for not doing enough, I think we’ve lost the PR battle against McConnell and maybe Trump.
Iowa Old Lady
@dww44: I’m not sure most people know that Medicare doesn’t cover long term care, and that the source for that is Medicaid. I didn’t know that until we were looking into options for my mother.
D58826
@Suzanne: I remember reading a long time ago that in the south you might only qualify as white trash sitting on the curb but at least that is better than being a black man in the gutter.
john fremont
@D58826: Yep, I agree. I bet Congress will have Platinum plans and won’t have to deal with issues like this.
As the article said,
“Of all the complaints we have received in our office, not one person was uninsured,” said Jesse Laslovich, the legal counsel for Montana’s insurance commissioner. “They’re all insured. And they are frustrated as heck that they’re still getting $50,000 balance bills.”
Yep, and if these Medicaid cuts go through, more rural hospitals close up and ambulance services will pick up even more of the load in getting people to critical care. When the county hospital closes, where are these rural residents going to go to even have a baby? Can they afford to take a few days off to head for the nearest big city i.e. Billings MT, San Antonio TX, Omaha, NE, Denver etc , to get a hotel room while your wife goes into labor? Some of my Facebook friends back in NY and Philly still can’t wrap their heads around what life is like in the Western States. They’re GOP, and it’s out of sight, out of mind.
Corner Stone
@gene108: That’s not what he did, and not what he was doing. He said quite clearly that he was in favor of informing the public *at the time* and said so. Don’t bullshit.
He didn’t blame Obama for Trump winning.
Iowa Old Lady
@D58826:
I was just thinking that same thing this morning. The tax cut the 1% gets looks enormous to average people, but it will make zero difference in the 1%’s ability to lead a very comfortable life. At that point, more money is about something other than what money will buy.
germy
@Iowa Old Lady: “It’s the principle of the thing.”
Iowa Old Lady
@john fremont: Once while on vacation, I talked to a couple from Alaska who had to fly to Seattle to get a complicated back surgery for the wife. When they got there, she had a cold and the hospital wouldn’t do the operation until she was better. I can’t imagine what that cost. She was a post office worker.
ETA: Even where I live, people have to go to Iowa City or the Mayo Clinic for big things.
schrodingers_cat
@Corner Stone: Good to see you back in fighting form! BTW I went to the same Indian restaurant I had mentioned last time, last Thursday. Their pepper chicken was out of this world. I am going to try my hand at making naan with ready made pizza dough this evening. Wish me luck.
Corner Stone
@schrodingers_cat: I still haven’t been back to my local place. That’s a few hundred bucks I have not spent there that I reasonably would have.
Mmmmm, nnnaaaaannn…
D58826
@Iowa Old Lady: I remember years ago my Mom trying to help a 50’s something neighbor with remembering to take his shots. He was fine living alone as long as he took his meds. Finally it got to much for her and she had to stop. After a number of ER runs, his family put him in a nursing home. I have no idea why they didn’t set up some type of visiting nurse arrangement. Maybe he didn’t qualify to sponge off the state for that service so his family just threw him to the wolves and let the state pick up the much more expensive nursing home bill.
This entire debate makes me very embarrassed to be an American. And yet there is the video that I saw on Twitter the other night that restores some hope. . The man’s 20 year old daughter died unexpectedly. She was signed up as an organ donor so she gave 4 strangers a second chance at life. The father traveled 1500 miles to meet the recipient of his daughter’s heart. The recipient unbuttoned his shirt and let the Dad listen to ‘their’ heart with a stethoscope. Plenty of tears to go around. And while it is not the primary lesson of that video, the girl was white and the recipient African-American. Which just drives home the point that under the skin we are all God’s children.
germy
When my local public television stations grows weary of british sitcoms and antiques roadshow, they feature this on a sunday afternoon:
Followed by this:
? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?
@Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD): That’s Cole’s laissez faire moderation policy at work.
Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)
@? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?: I was actually talking about LGM; I’d personally prefer threaded comments here.
schrodingers_cat
@Corner Stone: This restaurant is in the next town over across the river. I was in the vicinity so I stopped there for the lunch buffet. Unfortunately, there are no good Indian restaurants in my immediate vicinity.
Corner Stone
@germy: That Kimberley Strassel is frackin nuts. She came on MtP and lied about some shit she later sourced back to Michael Fucking Ledeen, with a transit through Brietbart.
D58826
@Iowa Old Lady: I forget the exact amount, I think it was $1000.00, but the Koch Brothers could burn one bill every minute and it would take a couple of hundred years to literally burn thru their fortune. If you compounded the interest on the unburnt portion the universe will end before they could burn thru it all.
Only explanation I can think of is the money is a visible proxy for their balls. More money means bigger balls (well old little hands may be any exception).
Corner Stone
@Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD): BE GONE! BE GONE FOUL SPIRIT!! BACK TO THE DEPTHS OF COMMENT HELL WITH YOU!!
schrodingers_cat
@germy: There is a reason I have given up on Pure Bull Shit, except for the cooking shows.
ArchTeryx
@D58826: Wrong part of the genitals, m’dear.
schrodingers_cat
@germy: They want to kill us and want us to be civil to them. Fuck that shit.
Aleta
OCare was meant to protect people from debt. I believe the Republican health care act is designed for the debt industry, for runaway profit like the housing market provided. The insane choices for premium-deductible, the caps on treatment, the reduction in Medicare; in addition to destroying poor people, it targets the savings and pensions of the retiring middle class.
Are hospital companies already in the credit card business? If not, I can see it coming. (‘When a loved one is sick, you don’t have time to track down every bill. The WeCare Network card. Your family hospital, your partner all the way. Easy low financing when you need it most.”)
Corner Stone
How can a man as wealthy as Ron Johnson have lost all his upper teeth?
Baud
@germy:
If that’s what they’re airing, then we’ve failed miserably.
? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?
@germy:
Criticism, how does it work?
And why can’t these violent leftists just be civil and die in silence?!
? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?
@schrodingers_cat: I know it’s bullshit. I feel like I want to tear them all down and start over. Who the fuck are these people who decide how these issues should be framed?
Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)
@Corner Stone: I will say that the current system at least limits the damage trolls can do to comment sections – in a thread system, persistent trolls.
? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?
@Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD): ?Doh! That’s what I get for not reading all the comments
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: I still maintain that the prestige media outlets are as hostile as RWNJ outlets to the Dems, if not more. They just couch their criticism more politely and frame R talking points as if they are CW.
Garbage Vichy Times was the foremost and relentless driver of the EMAILZ story.
Baud
@schrodingers_cat: It’s a good cop/bad cop tactic.
D58826
@dww44:
I actually have no problem with being prepared like that. I kind of look at it from the perspective of education.We all kick in with or w.o kids, for the public schools so that the next generation can get good jobs that help grow the economy. Medicaid for nursing home care is pay back for all of those school tax dollars that our parents paid. On the other hand if your mom had tons of money I think it is rather greedy spending down (which I suspect in many cases means transferring the money to the kids) just to dump her on the state. As I mentioned elsewhere in this thread I had to put my wife in a home because I could no longer care for her at home. She had end stage MS, and the end came in 2009. I’m not sure how the ‘spending down’ works because I never looked into it. Because all of our income was from my job maybe she did qualify for Medicaid but for many reasons I was able to pay out of pocket (240k over three years) without being forced to eat smaller cans of cat food. Now I never made more than 100k a year, we had no kids, had a modest life style (my sister prefers t he term cheapskate) and got lucky in being able to invest my 401k in the greatest bull market in history. SO I just felt a (hate to borrow a Mike Pence term) sense of personal responsibility to pay for her care as long as I could. Obviously her acute medical bills were paid for by my good employer based healthcare plan (about 500k over 20 years). The bank does offer a long term care plan but it was added to late for her to enroll. Pre-exisiting condition and all of that
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: Agreed 100%
Peale
@Aleta: in the Philippines, that’s how it’s done, only it’s the hospital owners who become property owners. If you have any assets at all, and someone in your family is ill, you sign promissory notes pledged against those assets and have a ridiculously short period of time to cover the notes. So your sick and have 30 days to cover your medical expenses or your both sick and homeless.
D58826
@schrodingers_cat: I think its a couple of things.
The elite media swims in the same duck pond as the politicians. If you swim with the ducks long enough you will start to look like one and more importantly think like one. Th R’s have dominated the duck pond for at least 2 generations. The media might well have been more liberal back in the day after 2–3 generations of liberal New Deal democratic dominance up thru 1970 or so.
The other issue is access. Access is the coin of the realm for the media. If Chuck Todd gave John McCain the third degree on his ‘I have concerns but will vote yes any way’ schtick how often do you think McCain would appear on MtP. And the same can be said about any of the other R’s. The D’s sitting home watching will think there but for the grace of god go I and will not answer the phone when Todd calls. The R’s have been very reluctant to appear on non-FAux outlets to defend the Trumpcare bill.
We have seen this happen in real life. Sen. Al Franken. in his oversight role on the Judiciary committee, ripped Sessions several new ones. Notice Sessions seems very very reluctant to appear before Franken. Now I suspect that after Sen. Harris poured salt in those new wounds, Sessions will not be back before the Intell. committee in open session any time soon.
Gordon Schumway
@BBA: Spot on.
D58826
@tobie:
You know our political system has reached peak corruption when the left pin it’s hopes on defeating the bill on the likes of Paul/Lee voting no because they don’t think the bill hurts enough people.
Gelfling 545
@Corner Stone: and even if Dr J Doe on the other side of town charges less, you need to first have a pcp who will give you a referral and second, probably Dr D won’t be in your plan’s network. It’s not like most people can go to any doctor all willy nilly.
Iowa Old Lady
@Gelfling 545: I go back and forth on whether the ACHA defenders have convinced themselves that what they’re saying is true or they’re lying and they know it.
D58826
Since the GOP is big on people voting with their feet this seems like a good idea on twitter.
One response was that some people can’;t vote with their feet. True but never stopped the GOP from using it to push for unpopular proposals in the past. So what is good for the goose is good for the gander.
https://twitter.com/studuncan/status/878366269912821761
Peale
@Gelfling 545: you see. That’s what the GOP means by ‘choice’. If you don’t have insurance you can choose any doctor you want!
Gregory
“The Senate bill is going to have more impact on the Medicaid program than even the House bill.”
But for Republicans, that’s hardly a drawback. Even Collins; that’s what she wants, she just doesn’t want her constituents to blame her for her inevitable and typical lockstep vote with the worst of the Republicans.
Cheryl Rofer
I’m seeing notifications of a human chain around the Capitol this Wednesday afternoon at 5. Seems like a good thing to do if you’re in the DC area.
TriassicSands
@D58826:
The individual members of the media may, in general, be more likely to vote Democratic, but, to show their professionalism and independence, they have to play the both sides/false equivalence game. One might think that right wing journalists might play the game the same way, but wingers have no compunction about being ideological tools of their party. Yes, when the GOP is totally in the wrong, the wingers may play the both sides/false equivalence game, or they may simply dispense with reality and blame the left for things the right is doing — see instability in Obamacare (and, say, Bret Stephens at the extreme left wing NY Times and a classic case of misattributed blame — on second thought, don’t see Stephens).
D58826
@Peale: BUT FREEDOM means that the doctor can Chose not to see you.
I was reading an article the other day that was talking about getting a doc. apt. If you are an existing patient with a proven method of payment (i.e. insur./medicaid/medicare) then no problem the doctor is in. For a new patient with no established method of payment other than cash (or a roast chicken) then the answer is the doc. can see you in 2029, maybe. All of those folks newly freed from the odious rules of Obamacare will be more than happy to get that appointment in 2029. Hopefully the executor of the estate will remember to cancel so as not to incur a no show fee.
D58826
@TriassicSands:
I have no problem with the ‘both sides’ game if it is both true and relevant to the issue at hand. Both sides sometimes are guilty of doing it. But allowing a GOOPER to bring up Margaret Sanger’s 1920’s position on eugenics as a both sides do it/false equivalence it justification for defunding P/P in 2017 is not relevant to the current debate. Neither is Sen. Byrd’s membership 1940’s membership in the KKK relevant to the position of the democratic party on civil rights in 2017. The moderator should shut both lines of comment down immediately.
TriassicSands
@D58826:
Why not have a choice? The Republicans are big on that. Everyone who wants the AHCA/Trumpskycare can sign up for that. Those who prefer the ACA can choose it. Or we could base it on whom you voted for. If you voted for Trump or not at all you win coverage by the AHCA. (Those who voted third party don’t get any insurance. If you were too stupid to choose between HRC and Trump, all you need is psychiatric care and the AHCA won’t cover that.)
? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?
@TriassicSands: Basing who gets healthcare on how one votes is unamerican. Now depriving millions of life-saving care is perfectly American, according to the GOP.
efgoldman99
@rikyrah:
You’d have to find them before you can blame them. Everything they know about organizing, they learned from studying Texas Democrats.
liberal
@TriassicSands:
That’s not the question. The question is the ideological proclivities of the people who sign the paychecks.
D58826
@liberal: And as the media falls more and more under the control of a few multinational conglomerates that means to the right.
Now I suspect that a few of these conglomerates, such as Murdoch, would run hourly biographies on Karl Marx and Lenin if that made more money then the current basis. Air American didn’t last very long did it?
D58826
@? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?: Now you are getting with the program (snark)
efgoldman99
@StringOnAStick:
I understand that doctors’ reputation as lousy businessmen is well-earned, but without medicare and medicaid who the fuck do they think pays for their nice neighborhoods, and beach houses, and sail boats, and mrs doctor’s Lexus or Mercedes, and spoiled brat doctor’s kid’ private school and SAT prep, and…..
Fucking assholes. Turns out Ben Carson’s the rule, not the exception.
gene108
@Corner Stone:
I thought he threw Obama under the bus. YMMV
? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?
@liberal: @D58826: Who says the media has to be state-owned to be a propaganda outlet for the government?
efgoldman
Argh, Hello front pagers….
I put the wrong screen nym on two comments, thus moderation. Couldja’, wouldja’ dig ’em out, please? (And thank you)
Corner Stone
@gene108: It does vary. But I also think an analysis of what happened is valuable. So maybe if you’d prefer just blanket excuses then what Schiff said bothers you more than others.
efgoldman
@D58826:
Right. I don’t care whether somebody votes against it because they’re afraid of electoral consequences, or because imaginary sky buddy told them to, or because they want it to cover inquisition torture (none of them will vote against it because it will kill people and it’s morally reprehensible).
Just as long as three of them say NO, I don’t give the smallest dribble of shit what their reason is.
efgoldman
@JPL:
Or he’s dumber than bobbed warr, which is his reputation.
Cheryl Rofer
@efgoldman: Dug out.
Villago Delenda Est
Collins is worthless. The “moderate” Rethuglicans put party before country or constituents, every single time.
Wipe them out. All of them.
D58826
@? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?: true. It follows the almighty buck. And if that buck was liberal Bernie Sanders would have his very own couch on Fox and Friends no matter what the Murdoch family though of him on a personal level.
efgoldman
@Kay:
You deal with these asses every day. You know goddamned well that they are delusional and unmoored from reality. Their immediate and far-flung worlds are as far removed from facts as Lewis Carroll. I’m not saying there’s NO hope, but if we’re lucky, some of the next generations might see the world as it really is. Or not.
D58826
@JPL:
Doesn’t really matter if it ‘keeps the expansion’ but takes away the funding. Even in the alt-fact world of the GOP 0 dollars still equals 0 program.
Aleta
Dismal and horrifying that (as far as I’ve seen) only 2 R senators have spoken against defunding Planned Parenthood.
D58826
@efgoldman: Not much mew here. Remember the tea partiers in their Medicare supplied wheel chairs demanding ‘NO socialized medicine and keep your hands off my Medicare’ all on the same sign. It was considered a plus when they spelled all of the words correctly. Hmm maybe someone can develop a spellcheck/grammar check app that can be built right into protest signs.
efgoldman
@Kay:
No
SATSQ
West of the Rockies (been a while)
I’d love a Russian Investigation Where Do We Stand Post…
Things seem to have cooled off a bit; in fact, I saw a story suggesting that the IC had leaked all it had to leak. I do NOT think this is true. But Sessions, Kushner, et al have kept their names out of the press for a few days now.
Obviously, investigations take time, but suddenly we’re hearing about Obama’s supposed failings.
What gives? Any guesses how and when the focus shifts back to where it should be?
Adam? Cheryl? BJers?
Sab
@Iowa Old Lady: You are absolutely right about how many people do not know that Medicare does not cover long term care. People tend not to look into the details until their parents need it, by which point the parents are old and the kids are middle-aged. @Kay:
JMG
@West of the Rockies (been a while): A number of the usual shills, Brit Hume and Hannity to be precise, have started floating the idea that even if the Trump campaign did collude with Russia, it wouldn’t be illegal. So maybe they think something new is coming down the pike pretty soon.
efgoldman
@Cheryl Rofer: Thank you
Cheryl Rofer
@West of the Rockies (been a while): The Russian story is so long and so complex that we will be hearing about it again. The best I’ve got right now is the Washington Post story from last week.
Mueller is staffing up with people who can chase down fraud and money laundering. He has a person who speaks Russian. He is not going to ignore that connection. But his investigation will take time.
The criticism of Obama is coming out of that Washington Post story. I think the Post handled it well, more analysis than blame. But there are those who must blame.
1) Obama knew about the Russian activities.
2) …..
3) The Russians are turned back, and America triumphs again!
The blamers tend to be light on 2. I am working on a post about 2, and then probably another post as well. I think William Saletan did a reasonably good job, but I am going into more detail of the strategy. What most commentators are not considering is that cyberattacks simply cannot be equated to war. I’m writing up why.
Barbara
@Iowa Old Lady: Long term care is basically custodial care. So while medical services are still covered by Medicare regardless of where provided, e.g., Part D drugs, room and board and nursing care such as administering medication is not covered. Congress passed legislation in 1987 to cover such care more directly but repealed it a year later. Dan Rostenkowski’s mother could give you the details if she were still alive, which I doubt.
amygdala
@efgoldman99: Recent study suggests doctor political affiliation varies by specialty. Ortho and neurosurg weren’t included in that study, but if the general trends identified hold up, they’d probably lean right. They’re at the top end of physician salaries.
Missed the thread about what you have been (and will be) dealing with medically. Sending good thoughts that all goes smoothly.
ArchTeryx
Maybe I’ve turned into a hothouse snowflake (how’s that for an oxymoron?) but in response to folks that told me that my little thread on LGM was simple disagreement: How come there are people on the left that disagree that mass murder is in fact mass murder? Nothing will doom all those people faster then the left deciding to go for a purely academic argument at this stage.
That was what was so distressing to me, frankly. It means that we are still not unanimous in any damn thing, even standing up to a eugenics program that’s basically a first step toward an American Aktion T4. I could care less if people get uncomfortable with my metaphors – not when hundreds of thousands of lives are at stake.
The alternative is just shrugging and saying those lives don’t matter. Black Lives Matter got started on far, far less then what’s being proposed now. That some on the left are willing to do just that leaves me in no end of flustered.
I’ve spent my life being thrown away by everyone but my immediate friends and family. This feels like it all over again.
efgoldman
@West of the Rockies (been a while):
If Mueller’s completed his team, and staffed up clerks and researchers, and actually started work (not a sure thing) they have hundreds of people to interview, and probably millions of paper and computer files to sift. Just dividing up the assignments on something this big takes a ton of time. Hell, just making lists of stuff probably takes weeks.
It takes a long time to base a case.
efgoldman
@ArchTeryx:
Mice eat cheese, cats eat mice, and academics argue about little teeny pieces of shit that have no real world importance. It’s what they do.
West of the Rockies (been a while)
@Cheryl Rofer:
Thank you, Cheryl… you are another great asset here.
West of the Rockies (been a while)
@efgoldman:
Patience is not my super power….
ArchTeryx
@efgoldman: Considering I came from that world not long ago, yeah. You have it exactly right.
A lot of professors in molecular science are very lefty in their voting and spending habits, but the moment a labor union tries to organize their grad students and postdocs, they show their true colors and become absolutely frothing rightwingers. The faculty/administration of a Tier I university makes Wal-Mart look like amateurs when it comes to union busting.
I know. I’ve been on the wrong side of them once too often in my life.
West of the Rockies (been a while)
@West of the Rockies (been a while):
That would be an intriguing super power… a guy (or woman) has some mysterious power, keeps showing up in the comic books, movies, but we never really learn their special talent until maybe volume #142… then BAM! It is finally revealed in some grand fashion.
? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?
@ArchTeryx: They either likely won’t be too hard hit by the new law or they’re not preventive enough to see. Your metaphors are perfectly spot on. The GOP has voted to murder people in mass. That’s not even including the 20 some million who lose their insurance now. That includes millions more who will be unable to afford coverage or will be excluded due to pre-existing conditions
Kathleen
@D58826: I think Air America failed because it was badly managed by people who didn’t know anything about radio. They only had 2 professional broadcasters with commercial radio experience on the air – Randi Rhodes and Mark Reilly. As much as I love Al Franken I couldn’t stand his show. Just my opinion.
Veteran broadcaster Stephanie Miller has been on the air for many years and is successful because she has the chops and the format people want to listen to.
I know BJ has several broadcast veterans (SD & EFG among others) and I would like to read their opinions as well.
ArchTeryx
@? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?: And yet, it’s not murder if we are just choosing not to save their lives, is it? Just like we choose not to help every starving child in the world. We make those choices every day.
The banality of evil in one sentence.
JoeSo
@efgoldman: I ‘d love to know what New York AG Schneiderman is up to. I’d had heard he was pursuing a RICO case against Trump and his offspring. I’d vote for that guy a million times just to piss off Trump.
D58826
@Barbara:
IIRC in order to get Reagan to sign it there was some tax/personal responsibility aspect to it. Well the old folks of the time wanted the coverage but didn’t want that pesky personal responsibility so they yelled and Congress repealed
Individual responsibility seems like a great idea until you are the individual responsible!
West of the Rockies (been a while)
@JoeSo:
Schneiderman, Schneiderman, does whatever a Schneider can…
Citizen Alan
@Iowa Old Lady:
I’ve had a theory for some time about the 1% mentality. Most of the obviously bad ones (Kochs, Mercers, Friese) are very old. And they know they’re likely to die within a few years. And it enrages them to think that the world would be so presumptuous as to continue on without them. And so they want to make sure that by the time they’re dead, the world will go with them.
Cheryl Rofer
@West of the Rockies (been a while): Thanks.
One of the objections to the Washington Post article is that it’s based on the Steele dossier. When I first read it, I was impressed with how closely some of it paralleled the Steele dossier. But for the intelligence organizations to come out as definitively as they have, they must have done a bunch of checking on it. They also must have decided to burn some sources, or maybe those sources were no longer, um, operative. One of the things I’ve wanted to do is to look at all the Russians who’ve been killed recently. The WaPo article is a motivator to look more closely. But there are only 24 hours in my day. Hopefully this will occur to some of the reporters as well.
ETA: To be clear, the WaPo article says nothing about the Steele dossier. But the sources it describes, one apparently inside the Kremlin, look very similar, as is the overall message, that Putin himself ordered the operation against the US election.
ArchTeryx
@JoeSo: He intends to take Trumpcare all the way to the Supreme Court because of the provisions very specifically punishing New York State, as unconstitutional interference with a state’s Medicaid system. Which the Supremes ruled not long ago were inviolable, making Medicaid Expansion optional. Things that make you go “Hmmm….”
Of course, if Kennedy retires and is promptly replaced by another Alito clone, that’s the ballgame. They’ll rule whatever helps the right wing, even if it means contradicting themselves repeatedly.
D58826
@Cheryl Rofer: Remember Obama did say there where things happening that we could not see and the WAPO reporter last night said she knows things that she can’t report on publicly. Maybe that is your ‘2…….’
And if we really had/have an asset in Putin’s office Obama might have been slow in acting in order not to burn the asset.
WestTexan70
@dww44: I, too, am a liberal Southerner. Get tougher. Until we get our friends and relatives to change their voting habits, we deserve any bile thrown at southern states. We live amidst horrible people. I’m leaving once my lovely wife decides to retire (in about four years) and I can’t wait.
Cheryl Rofer
@D58826: Yep. And Hillary laid it out pretty clearly in the second debate. But none of the reporters cared to pull on that bit of string. Heck, I was collecting suspicious bits and pieces last July. But them big-timey reporters don’t pay attention to me.
TenguPhule
@Hal: I’m going to have to insist that McConnell get the death penalty after conviction, no life in prison for him.