I’m watching the official feed, which is hosted by a couple of long-time Capitol guides, since they have cameras in places where nobody else does. They have apparently been told to avoid mentioning 1/6, so it’s interesting to hear them dancing around the subject, especially when Eugene Goodman was introduced.
Archives for 2021
We did it — the ACA survived
Over the past few days, my little corner of nerd and advocacy world has been having a long collective de-stressing breath that most of us had not realized we had been holding in for four years and three months. The Affordable Care Act has survived. In some ways, the individual market components of the ACA are now closer to the House Democrats vision in Spring 2009 than how it was operationalized by the Obama Administration in Winter 2017. Silverloading has done weird things! That was not a likely outcome of a Republican trifecta.
I want to pull back something from May 2017:
In a previous thread, a troll was FIRST!! with the advice to “Just quit, we lost this fight in November”
I reject that.
We aren’t going to win often but we get to choose how to lose. We can roll over without trying to defend our values and our morals or we can fight as hard as we can to either get a policy win or inflict significant political costs on Republicans to increase the probability of future policy wins by either putting the fear of losing their seats into them which constrains future opportunity space or flipping those seats in 2018.
More subtly, we tell stories to ourselves. I want those stories that I tell to myself about me to be true. Defending and improving the ACA is one of those stories that I tell myself. The ACA benefits 2009 me far more than it benefits the 2017 me. It is a gut check. Am I full of shit or do I actually believe in what I think I believe in.
We did that.
We got policy wins. We got political wins.
There is still need to moot a farcical suit that is currently at the Supreme Court.
But the ACA is likely to be around in 2022. It is likely to get a highly needed update and corrections revisit by Congress.
That is not what I would have put any money on four years ago today.
But Did He Leave A NOTE???? In the RESOLUTE DESK??
I’m a glass half full and there’s a spot on it guy, I know, but there’s about a 100% chance that the same wankers wondering whether Trump left a note in the desk for Biden will soon be filing stories about Biden’s failure to vaccinate everyone for COVID, followed by pieces on the crushing deficit.
We just had an armed insurrection that was almost successful. These fuckers are going to try to memory hole that as quickly as humanly possible.
In the words of a great female philosopher: I’m tired of dumb boy talk.
This thread is for anger only, because I’m god damned angry.
But Did He Leave A NOTE???? In the RESOLUTE DESK??Post + Comments (153)
Good Riddance
Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Inauguration Day!
I bet tomorrow there is going to be a viral video of some libs asking siri who the president is and then they all hoot and holler when it says Joe Biden
— Mr. Depth of Flavour (@bertovo) January 19, 2021
I’m guessing there will be whole YouTube and TikTok channels of such videos and video mixes!
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COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Tuesday/Wednesday, Jan. 19-20
1 year ago today a 35-year-old man presented to an urgent care clinic in Snohomish County, Washington, with a 4-day history of cough and fever. The next day the CDC confirmed him as the first US case of COVID-19. https://t.co/8Eh1L0Siak
— Jonathan Reiner (@JReinerMD) January 19, 2021
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On The Road – ?BillinGlendaleCA – Inauguration Day
?BillinGlendaleCA
Thirty years ago my wife became a US citizen, I promised that afterwards we would see her new nation’s capitol city. A few months later we flew to Washington and spent 5 days there. We saw the Capitol, the White House (including the tour), the Archives, and many other sites. It was my 4th trip to DC and we even hit a few places that I’d not seen (the Zoo).
With today’s Inaugural, I thought I’d revisit some of the photos. These were all shot with Canon Sure Shot Ace on 35mm film and scanned with a 35mm film/slide scanner. All photo were reprocessed from the RAW scanned image with either Topaz Labs DeNoise AI or Sharpen AI to reduce noise and sharpen the photos.
On The Road – ?BillinGlendaleCA – Inauguration DayPost + Comments (26)
Madame, with the east front of the Capitol behind her.