Bowie on Bolan.
Royksopp angelically on high.
Pet Shop Boys on the dancefloor.
And… well, I have no idea what the fuck these people are on, but I want some.
by Sarah, Proud and Tall| 131 Comments
This post is in: Music, Open Threads
Bowie on Bolan.
Royksopp angelically on high.
Pet Shop Boys on the dancefloor.
And… well, I have no idea what the fuck these people are on, but I want some.
This post is in: Austerity Bombing, Open Threads, Republican Stupidity, Republican Venality, Assholes
(Tom Toles via GoComics.com)
Jon Chait, NYMag:
… Most of us expected, at some level, that the election would cool the right’s apocalyptic fervor. Instead, the opposite has occurred. Paul Ryan candidly explained the calculation: “The reason this debt limit fight is different is, we don’t have an election around the corner where we feel we are going to win and fix it ourselves. We are stuck with this government another three years.” This is a remarkable confession. Republicans need to compel Obama to accept their agenda, not in spite of the fact that the voters rejected it at the polls but precisely for that reason.
The exhaustion of electoral channels against Obama has spurred the party to seize power through non-electoral channels. Their opening demand that Obama sign Mitt Romney’s entire economic plan into law in return for avoiding a debt default, while historically bizarre, followed perfectly from their legislative strategy this year…
Their aversion to compromise has been accepted as settled fact in Washington, reimagined not only as a new normal but as the way it’s always been. Republican Dana Rohrabacher defended the use of debt-ceiling threats to pry concessions from Obama like so: “People have to recognize there’s never any compromise until the stakes are high. In our society, that’s the nature of democratic government.” That is completely false. American political parties have forged compromises for decades without high-stakes threats to bring them to the table. Not to mention the fact that, by “compromise,” Rohrabacher means unilateral concessions by the president…
The hostage dynamic of the debt-ceiling fight has created a dangerous, historically unusual set of circumstances. One aspect of it is to set up a precarious, high-stakes negotiation, the failure of which could set off large, immediate, and irreversible damage. The second is to reset the balance of power between the president and Congress, allowing the latter to compel the former to submit to its agenda without concessions. Both these changes would permanently and dangerously alter the character of American government….
***********
That being said, what’s on the agenda for the start of the weekend?
by David Anderson| 14 Comments
This post is in: Excellent Links, Open Threads
An ode to quarterbacks as well as an analysis as how great process does not always lead to great results…
Change and counters to changes
The structure of language and concepts dictating physical realities
Interesting piece on reference pricing and its impacts in California…
To the extent that better decisions do lead to problematic risk selection other interventions, like additional subsidization, could address the problem. Nevertheless, it isvaluable to recognize that some degree of confusion can be harmful to consumers while playing a market stabilizing role.
To think, to drink and to waste some inkPost + Comments (14)
This post is in: Open Threads, Republican Venality, World's Best Healthcare (If You Can Afford It)
(Joel Pett via GoComics.com)
Via Paul Constant, Talking Points Memo has another tile in the mosaic of GOP opposition to affordable health care:
Americans will be able to register to vote when applying for insurance through Obamacare, a White House official told TPM Tuesday, despite reports to the contrary and outcry from congressional Republicans…
And Mr. Charles P. Pierce gets an uplifting quote from “Jonathan Gruber, the MIT economist who was central to the adoption here in the Commonwealth (God save it!) of what we still like to call Romneycare”:
… “The analogy I like to use is a building that’s burning down. The number of people covered by employer-based health-care plans is dropping by a percentage point a year. The system is falling apart. So you put in a new safety net. That means a few more people are going to come in. If you’re not willing to risk making some things worse, you’re never going to make anything better. My estimate is that 80 percent of the people are not going to feel any change at all, and that 17 percent or so are going to find that things are better, and that about two or three percent will be worse off, and those are the people who benefit from the discriminatory nature of health-insurance at the present time. If health-insurance companies can’t discriminate any more, those people will have to pay a little more. When we decided that people couldn’t discriminate in what they paid black people or women any more, people had to pay more because employers couldn’t discriminate in what they paid black people and women. Was that a bad thing?…
***********
What else is on the agenda for the evening?
Thursday Evening Open Thread: Gleams of LightPost + Comments (158)
by DougJ| 83 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads
I wish more people told this like it is (and Barro’s still a registered Republican):
How Many Decades Do Republicans Get To Jerk Us Around On Health Care?
Ross Douthat thinks I’m too pessimistic when I say Republicans will never support constructive proposals on health policy.
Given plenty of time and patience, he says they might enact a positive health care agenda.
Of course, that’s also what they say about monkeys and typewriters and Shakespeare.
Tom Edsall asks how the conservatives got so radical. His answers range from fairly insightful socio-psychology to liberals drive a car like this beep beep, conservatives drive a car like this BEEP BEEP, but the real answer is simple: they got this radical because they could. Conservative “intellectuals” like Douthat and Irving Kristol will go along with whatever crazy shit they think might help conservatives get elected, ostensibly nonpartisan pundits like Ron Fournier will say “both sides do it” no matter what either side has done.
There just hasn’t been much incentive for conservatives to be non-crazy or non-radical, not for many years.
by $8 blue check mistermix| 71 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads
Here’s an extremely profane and funny short interview with Neko Case. Open thread.
by $8 blue check mistermix| 67 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads
Why pull the pin on a hand grenade when there’s a pile of dynamite, a fuse and some matches within reach?