Commentor DanielX, with happy news to start the morning:
Chez X formally welcomes two new feline inhabitants: Boris (the Boisterous) and Natasha (the Climber). Okay, they’re both climbers. Both were adopted this weekend at an adoption fair at the fair price of thirty bucks each – fixed/spayed and with all shots except rabies, for which they are yet too young at nine to ten weeks. Already gotten much more than that in enjoyment for all concerned – except for Zoey the Senior Cat, whose reaction has been snakes on everything and a thousand hisses!
They are both rescued strays, both intrepid explorers and climbers and seem to be settling in well. Boris has already demonstrated the kitten levitation and sideways dancing sidle tricks repeatedly and Natasha has shown her mad skillz as an escape artist and climber. Their apparently suicidal curiosity is matched only by their reflexes, which enable them to escape any threat except a heavy Zoey-paw when they encroach on her space. Which, naturally, she considers to be the entire house, so they better learn to keep their high pitched mews, chirps, gravity-defying antics and inquiries about her royal self to themselves, or else. Oh well, she will get used to them eventually although she may never forgive any of the humans involved.
At top: Natasha captured not too long ago after somehow levitating to the top of a stack of Harry Potter stuff without knocking over the heap (hell of a lot more agile than Republican senators, no?). Boris is doing something unseemly under the same coffee table at the time. Natasha is a tiny thing, but healthy!
Boris captured in a reclining pose. It’s difficult to get any other kind of him since he is generally moving too fast for a camera to capture anything but a blur. He thought he had magically become an alpha cat and head bully until Zoey dispossessed him of that foolish notion – bop!
Natasha, already well acquainted with the fine old cat tradition of sleeping on top of the clean laundry in the basket.
Below: Boris in an action shot with Your Humble Obedient Servant. He seems to be settling in well.
Apart from the Morning Moment of Zen, what’s on the agenda for the day?
rikyrah
Good Morning,Everyone ???
rikyrah
The kitties are cute?
OzarkHillbilly
what’s on the agenda for the day? Ignorant orange vomit in the White House, what else?
geg6
The home base ump for the Pirates game last night was walking across the Roberto Clemente Bridge on his way to PNC Park yesterday afternoon when he saw a woman climb over the railing. She was suicidal and he held her, talked to her, got bystanders to call 911 and help him keep her on the bridge by force and saved her life. Then he went and called the game. Good karma!
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
Baud
Good cats.
Amir Khalid
Baby kittehs are so adorbs.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: My Nikki* just told me “the only good cat is a dead cat”.
*Nikki is a Cocker Spaniel.
Emma
What a lovely kitten story to wake up to.
Baud
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I take it you have no cats.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: Not possible.
Elizabelle
Welcome to Kittens X. Very cute. Kitten energy is good.
Museums and walking. Yesterday I saw a double rainbow, that lasted about 15 minutes tops. Was too close to get the bigger rainbow arching entirely across the harbor. Rain never lasts long in Barcelona.
Have to book my flight home. Alas.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: Nope, they wouldn’t last long with these two.
ETA: I’m scanning some slides of Death Valley and checked the date they were processed, March 1965.
Kay
They are up to 45 billion in opiate treatment money to get 4 GOP Senators to vote for the health care bill. It was 20 billion two days ago.
45 billion! On one health care issue. That’s just nuts. So Portman is willing to throw half a million people off health insurance but he feels very strongly that this ONE group of people should get treatment, but only for this ONE issue?
This demand doesn’t even make sense. Why should one group get funding? Why not 45 billion for diabetics, or 45 billion for heart disease? We’re not only picking which people get health care, we’re also picking what conditions we treat?
If you don’t believe in government funding health care, then why do you believe in government funding opiate treatment?
Maybe we could go one issue at a time. Next we can cover broken bones, or a subset- just arms.
Baud
@?BillinGlendaleCA: You’ve been at this longer than I thought.
Baud
@Kay: For once, it actually would be cheaper to throw them all in jail.
Baud
@Kay: I would like to know how much the Cornhusker Kickback would have cost.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: My dad took these pics, I know this because I’m in the pic I’m currently scanning.
Kay
@Baud:
They’re lunatics. It makes no sense to turn 99.9% of people away but just be endlessly compassionate about this one disease. WTF? In a rational world it torpedoes the whole GOP argument on health care. If Portman is worried about poor people dying of untreated opiate addiction he should be equally worried about people dying of untreated heart disease, or LUNGS- what about lungs? Kidneys, I believe, are quite vital. You need at least one of those to survive long enough to do 30 days in rehab.
Kay
@Baud:
Obama had 1 billion for opiate treatment in his budget- GOP turned it down. Trump has 2 billion and they want 45.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Kay: Well, ya two lungs and two kidneys; guess they figure you can get by with just one.
TriassicSands
@Kay:
But, Kay, opioid addicts are all victims of Big Pharma, whereas diabetics just have bad luck. Or is it the other way around?
Maybe the opioid money will have no strings attached and Portman and Ohio can hand it out as tax “relief” to the truly suffering 1%.
You have a good point. What makes opioid abusers worthy of special attention over any other class of sick or injured people?
Baud
@Kay:
@TriassicSands:
It makes sense because opoid addiction is in the news.
Patricia Kayden
Welcome to Boris and Natasha (and the unseen Zoey). Sweet kitties.
@Kay: Interesting because Jeff Sessions wants to bring back tough prison terms for nonviolent offenders which will probably include drug addicts.
Kay
@TriassicSands:
For some reason conservatives love them. They hated meth addicts but they love opiate addicts- even though they’re exactly the same people, often literally the same people.
They should have loved meth addicts. They;re the bootstrapping small business people of the drug world. They’re endlessly inventive. They make meth out of the contents of fire extinguishers now.
The Thin Black Duke
@Baud: It makes sense because in the red states where opioids are a big problem the majority of the people who are suffering from this addiction are white and they are the only people who matter.
Baud
@The Thin Black Duke: That’s true, but a lot of white people will also kicked off Medicaid.
Baud
GMA review of polls on health care bill. 16%, 12%, 17%.
Kay
@Patricia Kayden:
I don’t think states will go along with Jeff Sessions and states handle the vast, vast majority of criminal issues. That ship has sailed. Mass incarceration was a huge, expensive failure. Jeff Sessions will be traveling back to the 1980’s alone.
debbie
@Kay:
Optics!
I think I heard one GOP Senator say they were thinking of keeping the tax on incomes under $250,000 and getting rid of the tax for higher earners. Could the GOP be any less obvious? I don’t think so.
Patricia Kayden
@Elizabelle: Feels as if you have been overseas for ages. Coming back home may be a bit jarring for you given what the Rethugs are doing to this country.
The Thin Black Duke
@Baud: So that’s a win-win for the GOP! So much winning, we can’t lose for winning or something like that.
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay:
I think I see the flaw in your reasoning.
Patricia Kayden
@The Thin Black Duke: Yep. I don’t recall billions of dollars being spent to fight crack addiction or to help crack addicts even though that was a raging problem back in the day. It was all about putting them in prison and otherwise demonizing them.
debbie
@Kay:
Also, there’s a state legislator from southern Ohio who was on the news here the other day. His genius plan for dealing with the opioid crisis is that anyone who’s already OD’ed more than twice should not be resuscitated. Think of the cost savings!
Kay
@The Thin Black Duke:
That’s partly why it doesn’t make sense because the majority of people on Medicaid in Ohio are also white. No, they just love this one disease. Just one. This one disease should be wholly government-covered, for really no rational reason.
Patricia Kayden
@Baud: If Republicans pass that Senate bill after the July 4th break, it will send a clear message to us that they really couldn’t care less about the opinions of the American people. But I guess we all know that from their refusal to consider any gun reform legislation despite public polling which showed that that is what the American people wanted after the Sandy Hook massacre.
Lapassionara
Good morning, everyone. Making more calls today. Taking action lifts the cloud. My daughter, SIL, and 3 grandchildren arrive tomorrow night. Merriment will ensue. City Museum, here we come!
Baud
@Patricia Kayden: The last election showed that a substantial number of Americans don’t care about their country. Why should their elected officials? Almost seems unfair.
Amir Khalid
@Baud:
Let’s not mention that right now, ‘kay? The Republican party is pandering to its white voter base, to take some of the public pressure off its Senators, and the white people’s healthcare issue of the day is supposed to be opioid addiction.
Lapassionara
@Kay: They are all becoming like Trump. They only care about the last thing they heard something about.
JPL
@Patricia Kayden: The voters don’t punish them, so why not. They only care about the Koch family, and other big donors.
OzarkHillbilly
@Patricia Kayden:
The same American people who then sent them back to Washington.
Patricia Kayden
@Kay: Hopefully you are right about that because imprisoning millions of people for non-violent crimes and addictions doesn’t make a lick of sense.
Kay
The “confidentiality of states”? Their election systems were compromised and that’s a confidential matter?
Some of the secrecy around this is just bullshit. The DHS is not allowing states to release this information and there’s some kind of barrier to state elections officials being “read in” on current threats, because it’s all Top Secret.
This goes a long way toward explaining why we weren’t told anything and are still not being told anything. They have to stop classifying every fucking thing. What is the point of having information if they’re not going to release it in a timely manner? They really can’t let the states tell the public what happened? We can’t even know which states?
Baud
@Amir Khalid:
I guess we should be glad that ED is no longer a hot issue.
Iowa Old Lady
@debbie: I saw a clip of Tucker Carlson questioning Paul Ryan about cutting the investment tax that only kicks in on very high incomes. It looked bad even to Tucker Carlson. Tucker Carlson!
Patricia Kayden
@JPL: @OzarkHillbilly: @Baud: True. Republicans keep falling upwards despite shutting down the government (which cost the country millions of dollars) and disregarding public opinion on gun reform legislation so they’re not going to change.
Remember Trump boasting about how he had a plan to defeat ISIS within a few months of taking office? Well, the Pentagon plan for defeating ISIS is the same as President Obama’s plan. Color me shocked.
Elizabelle
@Patricia Kayden: I know. I keep up with you all on current events (and scan the major newspapers), and it’s appalling. We have to make them fail.
Here’s a great graphic strip post that outlines the coming of fascism pretty well. It is at the gates. We have to beat it back. We can do that, but it’s appalling they’ve managed to get this close.
The Nib: Strength Through Unity
How To Spot Fascism Before It’s Too Late
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
@Baud: digya see the Fox News poll had it at… wait for it… 27%
it’s spooky the way the number always ends up at 27% – as if it’s a magic 8 ball.
Kay
@Patricia Kayden:
He’s a dinosaur. Things moved along without him. It was dumb to pick a Senator, especially such a backwards olde timey Senator. He’s a decade behind where states are.
Baud
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: They mentioned that in GMA. Interestingly, the Fox poll also had Obamacare in positive territory.
OzarkHillbilly
@Patricia Kayden: Sad to say, it’s the tribalism. I don’t know how one gets around that.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
@Patricia Kayden: that’s the one Trump said would be completed within 30 days. So it only took a 158 days. Same thing.
Baud
@Kay: His job is to appeal to the racists. Everything else is secondary.
rikyrah
@Kay:
Keep on bringing this up, Kay
rikyrah
@Kay: uh huh
Interesting how this is going. Choosing the deserving. Straight up death panel.
MattF
@Elizabelle: I’m gonna do the ‘physicist’ thing and point out that the ‘position’ of a rainbow (i.e., the particular set of water droplets that are back-reflecting visibly colored light in your direction) depends on your position. There may be a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow, but getting to it is problematical– it’s not accessible to ordinary physically real individuals.
Amir Khalid
Why does the FuckYouWordpress spellchecker get upset when it sees the word “opioid”? Or, for that matter, when it sees its own name?
dance around in your bones
Maybe they have tender feelings towards opiate abusers because of Rush the Ear and his Big Mouth.
eric
Trump: If only there was some solution to this nation’s problems.
Bannon: well yes. Yes there is.
rikyrah
@TriassicSands:
Hold up. You make a good point. Isn’t this money going to be part of Medicaid?
As in Medicaid block grants?
As in the Governors can use the money for anything, including holes in their budgets, caused by tax cuts… looking at Kasich of Ohio. Portman doing his bidding to get the money to plug his budget holes?
rikyrah
@Patricia Kayden:
You and I both know that this will selectively apply to Black and Brown folks
Kay
@rikyrah:
Their argument is if the addicts get better they can work and contribute to society, but if that’s your position it’s gotta apply across the board. If I had a stroke I can’t get better and go back to work? Why? I’m much more likely to recover than an opiate addict. They’re not even picking a particularly cost-effective disease to treat. They’d get much more bang for the buck treating diabetes, if we’re picking who lives and who dies.
danielx
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
Amir Khalid
@Baud:
It has been drooping lately.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
@Amir Khalid: it petered out
TriassicSands
@rikyrah:
Well now, rikyrah, them thar Reepbublicans [sic] believe in choice — the choice to ignore poor people altogether or redirect money from opioid addicts to private religious schools or tax cuts for the Koch bros.
Who knows, Ohio may need to funnel a bunch of money into drug testing for Medicaid recipients. Drug testing addicts. Seems kinda redundant. Great Humanitarian Scott “Mahatma” Walker has just such a program in the works in the recently minted fascist state of Wisconsin. Mahatma’s goal is to so thoroughly humiliate Medicaid applicants that they give up and drop out altogether. After all, it’s a well-known fact in GOPland that you’re better off with no health care at all than if you have Medicaid. (Case in point — I know someone who had both a heart attack and aggressive prostate cancer while on Medicaid. Obviously, he would have been better off to have just ignored both.)
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Amir Khalid:
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: Oh my.
danielx
Kittens provide a laugh a minute. Well, almost. A little while ago, Boris (aka the Boisterous, the Bully and the Butthead) was trying to weasel his way in while Natasha was eating and she responded by letting out these Kitten-of-the-Baskerville-type growls to warn him off. We’d been concerned because she wasn’t eating the way he does, so varied the kitten kibble with some Fancy Feast. She inhaled it and requested more, naturally. Couple of minutes later Zoey was lying on one of the kitchen chairs at what she thought was a safe remove from the damned kittens, a la Mehitabel. Unfortunately, she left her tail hanging down and Boris was totally unable to resist biting. A yowl and much hissing ensued as Boris made a hasty exit/escape, as he frequently does. Boris is like the ultimate kitten cranked up x 3 – full tilt boogie all the time. Everything is to be investigated and played with, and no place is worth going to unless he’s going there at a dead run or live skitter.
Immanentize
@Kay: The smartest thing a future cancer patient could do is get addicted to their pain meds.
d58826
On why Bernie will not share his donor list with the D’s
And we thought that Der Fuhrer a god complex!!!!!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/bernie-sanders-donor-list_us_5952776fe4b05c37bb799b97?ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009
Immanentize
@Elizabelle:
If you are returning around Bastille Day, perhaps you will be passing Trump in the air. So your first few days here will be happily Trump free!
tobie
Did anyone catch the portion of the Rachel Maddow Show last night where she discussed this request for documents written by Chuck Grassley and Lindsay Graham to Rosenstein and McCabe? The two have asked for all documents related to the FBI’s successful and unsuccessful FISA court requests on l’affaire russe. Essentially they’re using their positions on the Senate Judiciary Committee to ferret out information that would be useful for (a) Trump et al’s defense on collusion and (b) the GOP effort to smear and ultimately stop the investigation. Scary stuff. I don’t know what kompromat they have on Graham but clearly it’s powerful stuff. He’s done a complete 180 degree turn since December. Once upon a time he recognized that a hacking attack by a foreign power was an attack and could be used in the future against the GOP, too. Now he’s Trump’s most virulent defender on this matter in the Senate.
Elizabelle
@Immanentize: Yeah, I saw that. Poor French.
d58826
@Kay:
I was going to comment on this when I saw the story on Twitter but you all have beaten me to it. And the thing is I’d bet that Obamacare is already providing the funding to meet this ‘on Monday what crisis? and on Wed. this earth shaking crisis’. I know that legislating is a lot like watching sausage being made but this is beyond embarrassing
So I will simply repeat that insofar as these 4 Senators are concerned – ‘we have determined what they are. we are now just dickering over their price”.
They are a disgrace to the good name of street corner whores everywhere.
O. Felix Culpa
@Immanentize: Speaking of which, any relief yet for Mrs. Imm?
OzarkHillbilly
via the Kaiser Family Foundation, Medicaid recipients and how the money gets spent:
The disabled make up 14% of MA recipients but account for 40% of spending.
The elderly make up 9% of recipients but account for 21% of spending.
Adults make up 34% of recipients and account for 19% of spending
While children make up 43% of recipients and account for 19% of spending
Just for accuracy’s sake.
Many more useful facts at that link.
MomSense
Kittens! What a happy way to start the day.
Cheryl Rofer
Another day without internet. CenturyLink says today may be the day they dig up the street. I am working on a post.
Immanentize
@O. Felix Culpa: Yesterday was advocacy day and after a full morning of calls and “pretty pleases” and some “WTF?s” we are back on schedule kinda for a PET next Monday. Unless something else intervenes? But a short term win!! I think the current fear is pancreatitis….
OzarkHillbilly
Kevin Drum has a pretty good breakdown of all the reasons “single payer” got shelved by Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon.
This one leaped out at me:
Also, our favorite Dick got a mention:
Patricia Kayden
@d58826: Perhaps Democrats need to start leaving Senator Sanders alone. He’s developing quite a god complex and there is no readson to keep feeding it. Let him concentrate on helping his wife with her FBI investigation and stop making him feel as if he is the savior of progressives.
MomSense
@debbie:
The governor of Maine doesn’t even think you should save them the first time because they’ll only do it again.
ThresherK
@Patricia Kayden: It’d be cool if Chris Hayes left Wilmer alone too. Hayes can start off small, try one week, then two…
Kay
@d58826:
Health insurance and heart attacks:
Why not 45 billion for prevention of heart attacks?
It’s just ludicrous that they support public funding of ONE tiny subset of the population and ONE disease.
Chyron HR
@d58826:
It’s true, though. I bet if a Democrat tried calling the people on the senator from Vermont’s $27 small donor list, their phone numbers wouldn’t even work.
Peale
@ThresherK: $45 billion for to help battle this public health crisis.
Immanentize
@Chyron HR: it wouldn’t be worth the call because they would all be calls to Russia.
d58826
@Immanentize: At this point a short term win is still a win. and best of luck with the rest
OzarkHillbilly
@Chyron HR: I did not give Wilmer any money, but when I donate, to anybody, and they insist on a #? They get a wrong #.
Kay
@d58826:
They know it’s incoherent, so they try to make is sound like an actual contagious disease- an epidemic, like Zika or typhoid or something, but addiction is really treated much more like a chronic condition and it isn’t spread involuntarily so it’s a bullshit comparison anyway.
It’s not just that Republicans are bad on healthcare- they’re completely incoherent on healthcare. None of this makes any sense.
d58826
@Patricia Kayden:
I agree but I did think the Hammer of Thor was a bit over the top. -:),
And didn’t he call the investigation fake news or was it a witch hunt? Getting hard to tell the pols apart
tobie
@Chyron HR: His supporters tried to disrupt the healthcare march around the Capitol yesterday by shouting “single-payer, single-payer” but they were such a small fraction of all of us there that they were not able to do much. This is of course totally anecdotal but if yesterday’s turnout means anything, it’s that his support is wide but not deep.
d58826
@Kay:
Two things might help clarify:
1. hold on to power at any cost
2. make anything Obama related disappear down the memory hole.
or
1.make anything Obama related disappear down the memory hole.
2. hold on to power at any cost
Either order works
Kay
Well, people could stop voting for Republicans. It isn’t a tornado that just touched down. This could have been prevented. God almighty they didn’t even have to DO anything. They could just NOT DO one thing- stop voting for Republicans.
Kay
@d58826:
I think Medicaid is nifty. It’s why I supported the health care bill. I had big plans for expansion – buy in, all kinds of stuff.
It was like a lightening bolt. OMG, poor people already have single payer! What if other people could buy in?
satby
@danielx: Beautiful babies and many days of joy to you all. Even Zoey, who will probably grow attached in the future.
I’m a day behind on everything, getting called in to work on my day off, then a poorly timed and hours long Windows update prevented me from printing shipping labels until way after the P.O. was closed, so no point. I should be at the market right now, but finishing my last order and heading to the post office. Then I might make the market, but I’m inclined just to stay home and get ready for the next two days.
I need more than 1 day a week off ? #firstworldproblems
rikyrah
Donald Trump picks a fight over Medicaid he cannot win
06/29/17 08:41 AM
By Steve Benen
At a White House event yesterday, a reporter asked Donald Trump to comment on the Medicaid cuts in the Republican health care bill. “It’s going to great,” the president replied. “This will be great for everybody.”
As a rule, “everybody” is a word Trump should probably avoid. He did, after all, promise Americans, “We’re going to have insurance for everybody” – which is a commitment he abandoned soon after taking office.
Nevertheless, Trump’s clumsy comments yesterday about the underlying issue is part of a broader area of concern for Republicans. Their plan takes intends to gut Medicaid – a popular program that covers more Americans than any other program – by hundreds of billions of dollars. The GOP response so far has been to insist that Medicaid cuts aren’t actually Medicaid cuts. As USA Today noted, Trump joined the chorus last night.
Yes, this is the line Republicans have decided to stick to: it only ****looks like they’re cutting Medicaid by hundreds of billions of dollars, but that’s a ruse concocted by those rascally Democrats.
In reality, of course, it’s not just Dems who’ve raised concerns about the Medicaid cuts; plenty of prominent Republicans, including Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Dean Heller (R-Nev.), have echoed the point.
O. Felix Culpa
@Immanentize: Congrats on the win! I hope Mrs. Imm gets everything she needs in a timely way. Warm thoughts to you all.
rikyrah
Republican senators grow weary of Trump’s health care illiteracy
06/29/17 08:00 AM
By Steve Benen
After meeting with Donald Trump this week, a Republican senator told the New York Times the president “did not have a grasp of some basic elements” of the GOP’s health care plan. This followed a Weekly Standard report, which said “several” Senate Republicans who’ve spoken to Trump found he had “little apparent understanding of the basic principles of the reforms and virtually no understanding of the details.”
The Washington Post reported today that “seasoned senators,” after speaking with Trump, “saw a president unable to grasp policy details or the obstacles ahead.”
Trump’s illiteracy on the substance of governing may not be new, but his ostensible allies appear to be increasingly weary of the amateur president’s ignorance – enough to share concerns with multiple media outlets – and it’s starting to matter more.
Consider this anecdote from a Politico piece published last night.
There’s no reason to believe the senators are giving false accounts of their conversations with the president. On the contrary, it’s very easy to believe their versions of events.
What’s more, Trump probably wasn’t misleading them, either, at least not deliberately. He very likely heard them out, and said their position sounded like the sort of thing he could support.
But therein lies the rub: the president has no idea what he’s talking about and doesn’t want to make an effort to get up to speed.
satby
@Kay:
true, and the point I make repeatedly to the people who seem unable to make the connection, or make spurious “both sides bad” comments. Like water on a rock, I don’t think I’ll live long enough to see the full results, but I’m doing my bit to erode the stupid.
rikyrah
The Evolution of Devolution: Explaining the Modern GOP’s Embrace of Social Darwinism
Trevor LaFauci
June 28, 2017
“Just leave them all behind.”
That was my response to a question posed by my high school law studies teacher in the fall of 2001 regarding the philosophy of English political theorist Herbert Spencer. After I presented a brief report on Spencer’s life and work, my teacher put me on the spot in order to test my deeper understanding that went beyond a simple summary. To do so, he asked me how Spencer viewed those in the lower class and what, if anything, should be done to help them advance. After my initial confused silence, my teacher followed up by asking what Spencer would recommend doing for those we viewed as inherently inferior. After a brief pause, I gave my above response and received a nod of approval from my teacher.
At the time, I recalled being slightly unnerved by my own response. For someone to believe that an entire segment of the population should be written off seemed extremely harsh. Even my sixteen-year-old brain had a hard time believing that at some point in history people had actually believed they were superior to others based simply on how they were born.
………………………………………..
Unfortunately, today’s Republican Party is anything but logical.
Despite Social Darwinism having been long disproven as having any basis in scientific fact, the Republican Party somehow continues to believe that certain segments of our population are inferior simply because of how they were born. It is this distorted worldview that allows them to dehumanize those who are born from lower social classes as well as non-White males. If you believe someone is inherently inferior then you don’t have any reason to advocate for policies that could in any way help them advance. These policies could address such issues as education, healthcare, a living wage, transportation, addiction, or gun control among others. This is why Republicans today lack an empathy that helps create and maintain programs to build and strengthen the social safety net. Republicans see no reason to waste valuable time and resources on an entire segment of the population that was designed to be left behind.
This is also why Republicans simply refuse to acknowledge any systems in place that they have personally benefitted from. Because to admit this benefit would be to admit that they were once one of the “others” who were designed to fail. It is why someone like former Congressman David Jolly can repeatedly vote against the Affordable Care Act despite benefitting from it when he was unemployed. It is why someone like Paul Ryan wants to cut social security benefits despite being able to attend college because of it. And it is why Mitch McConnell currently wants to strip health care from millions of people with preexisting conditions despite having been diagnosed with polio as a young child.
rikyrah
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 6/28/17
Another empty Trump threat falls flat against Comey
Rachel Maddow looks at evidence of Donald Trump’s long history of trying to intimidate people he doesn’t like with hollow threats of lawsuits, and notes the failure of his recent threat to file a complaint against James Comey as a setback in his attack on the FBI’s Trump Russia investigation.
O. Felix Culpa
@satby:
I initially read that as “I need more than a week off.” If you ever get that actual week-plus, you have a vacation home (well, our TV/music/guest room) ready in New Mexico!
rikyrah
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 6/28/17
Republicans already working to discredit Trump Russia probe
Rachel Maddow reports on how a letter from two Senate Judiciary Republicans to the FBI appears to be trying to set up a case to discredit the Trump Russia investigation, a familiar political tactic by those feeling the head of an investigation.
rikyrah
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 6/28/17
Republican health/tax bill tests loyalty to constituents
Chris Hayes talks with Rachel Maddow about the key to the success or failure of the Republican health/tax bill: whether Republicans from Medicaid expansion states care about their constituents.
rikyrah
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 6/28/17
EPA sidelining science under Trump, Pruitt
Rachel Maddow looks at the dubious job Donald Trump’s EPA is doing as a steward of the environment and tells the story of Deborah Swackhamer, chair of the E.P.A.’s Board of Scientific Counselors, who was pressured by an EPA official to change her testimony to Congress.
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 6/28/17
Scientist says EPA asked her to change testimony to Congress
Deborah Swackhamer, chair of the E.P.A.’s Board of Scientific Counselors, talks with Rachel Maddow about the pressure she received from an EPA official to change her congressional testimony and how the EPA’s outside scientific review board has been “decimated.”
rikyrah
ineffectiveness is proof that GOPers understand that the price of just being at the table with Trump is to bribe him at his hotels.
— Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) June 29, 2017
Spotted outside Trump fundraiser wearing credential: Dean Heller
— E McMorris-Santoro (@EvanMcS) June 28, 2017
Huh. Interesting that this comes amid reports that @SenDeanHeller is “back at the table” on health care https://t.co/afCtX6dkXY
— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) June 29, 2017
rikyrah
WOW.
WH promises they can pass health care repeal b/c they can “bribe” Senators to vote yes
(via @jonathanvswan by @DavidNather) pic.twitter.com/sHT6nsBWuo
— Jesse Ferguson (@JesseFFerguson) June 29, 2017
Ron Johnson just said Rs will buy off moderates with a bit of added money.
If so, their criticisms were lies:https://t.co/yLT5BXbKYB pic.twitter.com/BQDtSGk5SF
— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) June 28, 2017
rikyrah
“Trump is obsessed with Obama. Obama haunts Trump’s dreams,” writes @CharlesMBlow https://t.co/XYGxz0H9l2
— NYT Opinion (@nytopinion) June 29, 2017
Quinerly
@Lapassionara:
Love City Museum! I’m proud to call one of the gals who did much of the mosaic work there one of my best friends. In fact, she will be at my home today working on a 1/2 bath. She did a hall floor here and kitchen counter tops in 1995…I videotaped her & it became part of her portfolio (along with her work at the Venice Cafe) that helped her get the gig at the City Museum. I have to brag anytime I can on her. She does amazing work. Have fun!
rikyrah
BREAKING: Senate draft of NDAA bans use of Kaspersky products by DoD due to reports company “might be vulnerable to Russian govt influence” pic.twitter.com/D3gylJN7Bq
— Dustin Volz (@dnvolz) June 28, 2017
SHAHEEN: “Kaspersky Labs cannot be trusted to protect critical infrastructure, particularly computer systems vital to our nation’s security”
— Dustin Volz (@dnvolz) June 28, 2017
Wait, a Russian IT firm run by a “former” KGB guy is….suspect?
#NoWay
https://t.co/Y0PSxvSxEt
— John Schindler (@20committee) June 29, 2017
rikyrah
If anyone you know doubts that it’s ILLEGAL for Trump to collude with a foreign power as it attacks our infrastructure, RETWEET THIS THREAD. pic.twitter.com/mIr0OEpnm9
— Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) June 28, 2017
rikyrah
This bill is like a rotting fish – the longer it’s out there, the more the American people realize it stinks. https://t.co/eOxd3KtSVF
— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) June 28, 2017
rikyrah
Things @MarcoRubio won’t do:
❌ Wont stand up to Trump
❌ Wont support DREAMers
❌ Wont hold town halls
❌ Wont speak to constituents
SHAME https://t.co/KjP9NAQqmG
— Juan Escalante (@JuanSaaa) June 28, 2017
Constituents were barred from the public office of Senator @marcorubio because according to police “It’s a private building.” #SaveOurCare pic.twitter.com/0NJSDTcUUL
— Tomas Kennedy (@Tomaskenn) June 28, 2017
rikyrah
This chart from the CBO report really says it all: low income Americans are asked to pay higher premiums for less generous coverage. pic.twitter.com/hT51OqJAfs
— Sarah Kliff (@sarahkliff) June 26, 2017
satby
@O. Felix Culpa: ? ?
One of my bucket list things will be a Quinerly-esque wander around the country and Canada (sans Poco) and having meetups along the way after I really retire. If next year, in conjunction with GOTV efforts.
rikyrah
Here is a new summary of the health bill the Senate is considering passing.
RT if helpful. pic.twitter.com/EHlBf158AL
— Andy Slavitt (@ASlavitt) June 27, 2017
rikyrah
.@realDonaldTrump tweets a lot about “terrorism”, but not when the attackers are white. We looked at the data. pic.twitter.com/07GYeSTpiW
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) June 28, 2017
rikyrah
NYT on Trump’s travel ban: “Grandma, No” https://t.co/b5RNdus4bg pic.twitter.com/uC3iAenBqq
— Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) June 29, 2017
Parents, including in-laws, are considered “close family,” but grandparents are not https://t.co/yrOErQwi9U
— The New York Times (@nytimes) June 29, 2017
d58826
@Kay: Fix a couple of the know problems with Obamacare. Pass whatever legislation is necessary to get around Hobby Lobby decision and the medicaid expansion decision.
Legislation could fit on a postcard since the GOP Senators have such a short attention span when it come to reading multi-page documents.
Of course that doesn’t fix the real problem with Obamacare. It is the OBAMA part.
rikyrah
@Kay:
They wanted their cake and eat it too.
Voter for Republicans, but count on Democrats to save the programs that they like.
I have no sympathy.
rikyrah
@Kay:
They don’t believe that healthcare is a right.
That’s the bottom line.
They really don’t.
I had a disagreement with someone on another blog yesterday, who said that they were incompetent.
I told this person that the White House was incompetent.
The rest of the Republicans?
What they want to do would show their true sociopathy, front and center.
This is why they’re desperate for Trumpcare. They can hide behind the LIE that this is a healthcare bill. It’s a tax cut bill.
Without it, they have to do their sociopathy completely out in the open.
Quinerly
@satby:
I started planning my Albuquerque stay last night! Looking forward to hanging out with some area BJ peeps 1/25-2/25. Going to explore south of Albuquerque for about a week prior to arriving at my rental. Anybody from around Truth or Consequences and Las Cruces? Let’s make a plan!
rikyrah
Democrats Need to Educate People About Kansas
by Martin Longman
June 28, 2017 3:50 PM
I was hoping someone would take a careful look at how Kansas Governor Sam Brownback’s experiment in Voodoo Economics has worked out for his state, and Justin Miller at The American Prospect has granted my wish. Without getting into all the details in this piece, I want to make a more general observation. There’s a lot of value in what Brownback did to Kansas because it gives us a chance to compare what the Republicans say will happen for education, employment, economic growth, and budgeting health if they get to implement their policies and what will actually happen.
Since 2013, the job growth rate has been 7.6 percent nationwide, but it has only been 3.5 percent in Kansas. There are 34 hospitals in the state that are now at risk of going out of business. Both Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s have downgraded its credit rating, increasing their cost of borrowing. Public schools are so short of money that two districts were compelled to end their year early. Brownback found himself so desperate for operating capital that he looted the Kansas Public Employees Retirement System and slashed funding for the state’s transportation system.
In short, things got so bad that the Republican-dominated legislature overrode Brownback’s veto and passed a budget that, among other things, rolled back his tax cuts and provided more funding for schools.
The Democrats should not ignore these results. They should study them and they should figure out a way to highlight them relentlessly so that as many people as possible internalize the lessons. No one should have to endure what the people of Kansas have endured if it can be avoided. Republican office seekers will continue to assure us that the best way to raise revenue is to ask for less of it and that exempting businesses and limited liability corporations from taxation will lead to job growth. They’ll continue to starve education budgets with talk about providing choice, and they won’t stop attacking Medicaid even as it results in devastation for the health care system. But we can point, in all these cases, to Sam Brownback and Kansas.
We can say that we tried all that and here is how it turned out.
Quinerly
@rikyrah:
My 5:00 AM read. Love me some Mr. Blow!
rikyrah
Breaking: Just confirmed by source with knowledge of Mueller investigation. Paul Manafort is not cooperating. He has no deal. Full stop.
— Claude Taylor (@TrueFactsStated) June 29, 2017
Elizabelle
@rikyrah: exactly. This is a civil war over whether healthcare is a human right. All other advanced democracies have decided “yes.” Because it’s good business, in addition to being moral and ethical.
We need to beat these fuckers back to under the rock from which they slithered.
It’s the challenge of our time. We must win.
a thousand flouncing lurkers (was fidelio)
In case anyone missed it, Ed over at Gin and Tacos takes up the Hon. Mr. Chaffetz’s petition for redress of his housing expenses.
Both Jonathan Swifts gaze down from heaven in delight.
Quinerly
@rikyrah:
Thanks for all these Rachel posts. I took a break from all things political yesterday. Looks like you are going to get me caught up.
Elizabelle
@rikyrah: And Louisiana too. Bobby Jindal tanked their economy. Got a Democrat elected as successor.
O. Felix Culpa
@satby: That would be awesome! Both the visit and the GOTV help, if you happen to be here during that time. We desperately need to elect a Dem governor. Susana Martinez has been a disaster for an already-poor state, News flash: corporate tax cuts don’t bring in new businesses when you have crappy infrastructure, lousy schools, and a poorly educated workforce.
JPL
Theme of the president’s morning tweets, women and blood..
https://twitter.com/RealPressSecBot
This is when I finally started crying. I’m not sure we survive this.
rikyrah
about Trumpcare,
LarryO pointed out last night that the Turtle refused to put Trumpcare through the Finance Committee, because he was afraid of losing one vote on it. By not putting it in the Finance Committee, he would get it to the floor for a vote.
Gin & Tonic
@rikyrah: I really, really, really hope Paul Fucking Manafort goes down hard. He alone among that whole corrupt crowd has blood on his hands.
Sab
@rikyrah: You are so right. They really hate Medicaid.
That’s why they love the opioid treatment trade-off. Portman wants to slowly suffocate Medicaid, while holding up a big bright “opioid treatment” compromise that makes him look moderate and compassionate. Then in a couple of years they kill that off opioid treatment because who really cares about drug addicts, and meanwhile Medicaid slowly withers away.
rikyrah
@JPL:
What did he do NOW?
MomSense
@JPL:
What? He actually tweeted that mess about Mika bleeding badly from a facelift? OH MY GOD. What is even happening?
Gin & Tonic
@MomSense: And here’s what the head of NBC PR just put up on Twitter: “Never imagined a day when I would think to myself, “it is beneath my dignity to respond to the President of the United States.””
Iowa Old Lady
@MomSense: Blood coming out of her whatever?
The man is sick.
Elizabelle
@Gin & Tonic: We actually don’t know about the Manafort alone having blood on his hands.
They all like blood. And power. And cash
WereBear
Squee! Mazel tov on kittens!
JPL
@MomSense: Although I don’t click on his tweets, I do read this feed
https://twitter.com/RealPressSecBot
Mika has a low IQ, and was bleeding from her face, and Joe is a psycho. Personally, this is when I realized, that he just won’t stop, and will drag us down the gutter with him.
Gin & Tonic
@Elizabelle: Well, I doubt Roger Stone or Carter Page do. I know Manafort does.
d58826
@rikyrah: In one sense I suspect that we are overthinking this. The GOP has been taken over by a group of money men and politicians (since the money men prefer to stay in the shadows and clip coupons) who have a theory of government/society that would be more at home in the age of the divine right of kings. They, as the 1%, are the lords of the ‘estate’ and the rest of us are at worst serfs or at best tradesmen/craftsmen who are free but still totally dependent on dealing with the lord. The ‘estate’ while it includes land but also includes companies, stocks, bond, etc
Since they don’t view this position purely as result of birth (well the Trumpettes do) they are willing to accept new members as long as they have the request balance sheet.
So any kind of gov’t program that doesn’t work to their advantage is wrong and any one that does is acceptable. The view is totally incompatible with one person one vote and a government serving the interests of the larger community
rikyrah
@MomSense:
DA PHUQ?
DA EVERLOVING PHUQ?
Iowa Old Lady
@rikyrah: I’ve been thinking that MN and WI make a nice study in contrasts too. A Democratic state and a Republican one, same part of the country, same general population, and MN is thriving while WI suffers.
WereBear
Except for this drug, the profits flow to Big Pharma.
Miss Bianca
Kittensz!!!!
That is all, thank you. Exhausted still from attending highly politicized land-use meeting last night.
Patricia Kayden
@ThresherK: LOL!! Bernie addicts need help and love too.
Quinerly
@rikyrah:
Glad to see having Melania around all the time has had a moderating effect. Wasn’t it just yesterday he was flirting with a young, female reporter?
MomSense
We are at the point where the Congress really needs to step in and remove him from office for madness. He is decompensating before our eyes.
bemused
@Iowa Old Lady:
We having Dem Governor Dayton vs Doughhead Walker has been a huge factor. Dayton has stood up for Dem values. We still have our share of idiot Republican voters so if those knuckleheads manage to vote in an R governor, all bets are off. Our MNGOP are like all the rest with the same corrupt, greedy agendas We have budget surpluses and they immediately start drooling and battling to spend it all especially on tax cuts for wealthy.
bemused
@JPL:
OMG this is true. TPM reporting it.
Quinerly
Let’s make a deal…73% Dems and 17% Repugs say they would abstain from all alcohol for the rest of their lives in exchange for Trump’s impeachment: http://crooksandliars.com/2017/06/most-americans-would-quit-drinking-impeach
raven
On my way to Hartsfield for a trip to LAX for my BIL’s funeral. My niece’s husband bought really good box seats for the Angels-Dodgers tonite so I hit LAX at 4:30 and drive to Anaheim. Wish me luck!
LAO
@MomSense: Not going to happen as long as congressional republicans believe: (1) that they can get tax reform — or at least a significant tax cut for their donors and (2) that they can dismantle the social safety net.
Also — MSNBC responded to Trump’s twitter fit:
LAO
And now Megan McCain responds to Trump:
cruel and unpresidential: exactly who the fuck is surprised by this?
satby
@raven: condolences on the BIL…
MomSense
I hope they call in the WH doctor and sedate him. I’m not kidding. He can do too much damage to the entire planet if he continues to deteriorate like this.
Quinerly
The tweets are flying. MSNBC and Mika are responding: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/trump-mika-brzezinksi-twitter-attack
GregB
@JPL:
There is a reason so many people were in a deep funk when Trump was determined the winner by ratfucking.
He is so narcissitic, cruel and childish and he has the keys to everything. Nothing good will come from him because he is bad to the bone.
It is just a horror watching the madness continue to unravel and to see how many are on board or won’t shit or get off the pot until it is too late.
MomSense
@raven:
Hey Raven, I hope you have a really good visit with family even though it is for a sad reason.
dmsilev
@Quinerly: Mika’s tweet:
Kathleen
@rikyrah: @Immanentize: Maybe the whole state of. Ohio should become addicted to opoids. “Medicine for you! Medicine for you! Everybody gets medicine!”
Quinerly
@dmsilev:
Yep…I’m on the smarty pants phone so I’m lucky if I can post a link…no cut and paste for me when I’m laying around being too lazy to get out the laptop. Thanks for stepping up.
bemused
@Quinerly:
I feel like vomiting.
Kathleen
@d58826: Bernie’s Donor List, aka The Holy Pale.
Quinerly
@bemused:
Are we all to a point that nothing shocks us? How about if he drops trou and jacks off in front of Erin Burnett? What would Sean Hannity say?
Quinerly
@bemused: @Kathleen:
Bernie’s donor list makes me want to vomit. I blame them as much, perhaps more, for this shitshow….and for my terrible language lately. Fuck Bernie Sanders.
The Thin Black Duke
@Quinerly: Hannity would probably say that Trump had a “wardrobe malfunction.”
rikyrah
@GregB:
EVERYTIME I think of how we got to this point…
I just wanna say..
Karma is one unforgiving bytch.
They wanted a vessel for White Supremacy to erase the legacy of 44.
They got a White Vessel.
But, not the one they wanted.
The one they got is an INTERNATIONAL EMBARRASSMENT.
And, everything he does, only emphasizes the legacy, and the Administration of 44.
Every.damn.thing.
Now, and forever…
Phuck You, Mayo Nation.
Because you couldn’t handle that a Black man was President, but also competent and excellent.
d58826
@Quinerly: I think we have reached the point that Gen. Mattis/McMaster take a squad of marines into the Oval office and physically remove him and Pence. They set up a process for new elections. The gop chain of command thru Ryan, etc are all hopelessly corrupt and implicated, even if only by silence, in the russian hack
rikyrah
I kinda think it’s atrocious that y’all pretend HRC didn’t explain enough shit to you when 94% of Black women understood her just fine. https://t.co/njnWUt8aTI
— Propane Jane™ (@docrocktex26) June 29, 2017
rikyrah
Mitch McConnell is more worried about you interfering with plot to uninsure 22 million Americans than Russian interference in our election. pic.twitter.com/dXNaJnh15e
— LOLGOP (@LOLGOP) June 29, 2017
d58826
@dmsilev: I think they both should say “following Michelle’s advice about when he goes low then we will go high – I will not dignify this with any other reply’.
There really is no way to win a pissing contest with this guy.
d58826
@rikyrah: well one or two of us old white dudes heard her loud and clear (even if this one is deaf as a stone) . Just not enough unfortunately
bemused
@Quinerly:
Oh this shocked me. Not that I didn’t think he was capable of being even more of a disgusting “whiny little bitch” as Bill Maher labels him. Still, this truly stunned the words out of me. Pence is probably standing by with the strait jacket he’s had custom made for president Cretin.
satby
@rikyrah:
Yep. Jealousy and envy that a black family from average beginnings rose to the most powerful position on earth by talent and hard work.
Kathleen
@Quinerly: @Kathleen:
Please come sit next to me. Agree with you 100 percent, No need to ever apologize for language.
rikyrah
A New Kind of Tech Job Emphasizes Skills, Not a College Degree
By STEVE LOHR
JUNE 28, 2017
ROCKET CENTER, W.Va. — A few years ago, Sean Bridges lived with his mother, Linda, in Wiley Ford, W.Va. Their only income was her monthly Social Security disability check. He applied for work at Walmart and Burger King, but they were not hiring.
Yet while Mr. Bridges had no work history, he had certain skills. He had built and sold some stripped-down personal computers, and he had studied information technology at a community college. When Mr. Bridges heard IBM was hiring at a nearby operations center in 2013, he applied and demonstrated those skills.
Now Mr. Bridges, 25, is a computer security analyst, making $45,000 a year. In a struggling Appalachian economy, that is enough to provide him with his own apartment, a car, spending money — and career ambitions.
“I got one big break,” he said. “That’s what I needed.”
Mr. Bridges represents a new but promising category in the American labor market: people working in so-called new-collar or middle-skill jobs. As the United States struggles with how to match good jobs to the two-thirds of adults who do not have a four-year college degree, his experience shows how a worker’s skills can be emphasized over traditional hiring filters like college degrees, work history and personal references. And elevating skills
over pedigree creates new pathways to employment and tailored training and a gateway to the middle class.
This skills-based jobs approach matters at a time when there is a push to improve the circumstances of those left behind in the American economy, many of whom voted for President Trump.
“We desperately need to revive a second route to the middle class for people without four-year college degrees, as manufacturing once was,” said Robert Reich, a labor secretary in the Clinton administration who is now a professor at the University of California, Berkeley. “We have to move toward a system that works.”
The skills-based concept is gaining momentum, with nonprofit organizations, schools, state governments and companies, typically in partnerships, beginning to roll out such efforts. On Wednesday, the approach received a strong corporate endorsement from Microsoft, which announced a grant of more than $25 million to help Skillful, a program to foster skills-oriented hiring, training and education. The initiative, led by the Markle Foundation, began last year in Colorado, and Microsoft’s grant will be used to expand it there and move it into other states.
“We need new approaches, or we’re going to leave more and more people behind in our economy,” said Brad Smith, president of Microsoft.
Miss Bianca
@dmsilev: gotta hand it to Mika…that’s an unexpectedly sick burn from that quarter.
Elizabelle
@raven: Enjoy that game. Love Angels Stadium. Rally Monkey!
schrodingers_cat
@rikyrah:
Truth. President O also brought out many soft bigots out of the woodwork, like my ex-friend and Clint Eastwood, who couldn’t accept that a black person could be better than were.
Paul
They are cute little rascals aren’t they?
gammyjill
So sweet. I also have two rescue cats – one a tuxedo and the other a tabby. They’re both delightful.
J R in WV
@Kay:
Come on Kay, be real here!!
There’s almost certainly a great reason we can’t be told which states were targets of Russian operations during the just past election season. It is top secret, so I don’t think we should talk about it much, lest we reveal by surmise things they Trump secrecy establishment desperately needs to keep secret.
But I’ma gonna take a couple good guesses right out in front.
1) All the states targeted by Russia have newly developed robust Voter ID requirements, along with digitized Voter rolls against which the Voter IDs must be cross checked at the polls.
2) All the states targeted by Russia have had big changes in percentage of Democratic voters casting votes versus Republican voters casting votes.
3) All the states targeted by Russia went for Trump in quantities way above expected numbers according to polling before the election.
Am I seeming plausible to anyone here? So if they revealed the super sekret voting Russia target information, it would become obvious to a loon that Trump wasn’t really elected, he was selected, by V V Putin, effectively our second un-elected president in history, counting W Bush as the first.
J R in WV
@tobie:
I think you mean shallow but narrow, actually>!!! if they were <1% or so, and ineffective as well.
Not many = narrow
not able to do much = shallow
Right?
Good old friend has been active in Democratic party locally. Had Feel the Bern bumper stickers last year, and now talks about needing to leave now, got to go to church ya know. Sad. He's hitting 70s and had a couple of medical issues lately. So I can sorta understand needing to reach out for help… but that? So I'm just quiet about those topics around them.
Miss Bianca
@J R in WV: I just got in a FB spat with a friend who was approvingly posting one of those “Democrats need to do THIS before they are worthy of MY precious vote!” articles. He got upset when I said I was tired of white guys – progressives and Republicans alike – flapping their gums about how Democrats somehow need to “earn” their votes. Told me I could kiss his ass if I wasn’t prepared to have a “respectful” dialogue about it. What I should have said was “White guys who want to criticize the Democrats but won’t do shit-all to join the party and re-make it into the image they say they want can kiss MY ass.”