May 032015
 

As always, I have a very busy day on tap.  I spent a couple hours doing overdue computer maintenance, and I planned my itinerary, bought my tickets and paid for my room for my trip to Salem during the last week of the month for prison volunteer work.  I’m still in pain, but not so bad as to stop me.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:27 (average 4:39).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos:

Republican lawmakers know very well that they’re in an awful bind completely of their own making. They insisted on pursuing every possible avenue for destroying Obamacare, and now one might work out for them. The Supreme Court could very well decide in June to strike down subsidies to the around 8 million people who have purchased insurance on the federal exchange, making keeping that insurance impossible for many, and making those 8 million people very, very angry. Most Republicans have now come around to the idea that maybe that’s not going to be such a great thing for them, particularly those who have to be re-elected next year. One of them, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) has introduced legislation that would extend the subsidies into 2017. But Johnson isn’t the only one who has some kind of fix, and most of those "fixes" create real problems going forward.

The Johnson plan would prohibit new customers in both the state and federally operated exchanges from receiving subsidies and repeal the individual and employer mandates. In addition, it would eliminate the Affordable Care Act’s minimum essential benefit requirements, allow states to set those benefit rules, and grandfather in existing health plans that are not compliant with the ACA.

Another proposal, by Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.), would continue premium subsidies for 18 months but phase them out over that period. For six months after the court rules, financial assistance for all subsidy-eligible exchange customers would be set at a flat 65% of premium costs. That would decrease by 5 percentage points each month until the subsidies were completely eliminated. During the transition period, insurers would be prohibited from raising premiums. In addition, the Sasse bill would prohibit HHS from providing federal exchange technology to states interested in establishing their own exchanges. […]

On the House side, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and two other committee chairmen have proposed to offer a flat tax credit to people now receiving subsidies through the federal exchange. In addition, they would let states opt into an alternative Republican reform model without insurance mandates and including traditional GOP policy nostrums such as allowing insurers to sell plans across state lines.

In Short, the Republican fixes would all pretend to save ObamaCare, but would really convert it to standard RepubliCare, complete with the free RepubliCare Death Benefit. If you can’t afford to pay, you get to die.

From NY Times: A bill that would end prescribed wages on public construction projects in Indiana awaits the signature of Gov. Mike Pence. And Henry Burks, a union electrician who lives near Indianapolis, is bracing.

Mr. Burks, 57, is putting off plans to build a patio at his house. He is delaying painting and landscaping, too. And he said he is worried about how to continue helping his grown children with college costs if his income drops, as he firmly expects.

“This is going to inhibit me from taking care of my family,” Mr. Burks, who makes about $60,000 a year, said the other day as he took a break from installing conduit inside a corn processing plant in Lafayette. “Our wages will go down. The contractors we work for won’t get as many jobs. Maybe I’ll have to find work outside of Indiana.”

Sadly, it’s not just Indiana. The Republican War on Workers is a nationwide campaign.

From Crooks and Liars: Never mind decades of failed trickle-down economic policies on a national level, the talking heads at Fox want to pretend what happens in our cities takes place in a vacuum.

From this Saturday’s Cashin’ In on Faux "news," the usual suspects were on there bashing liberals, our social safety nets, and pretending that liberals running our big cities in America are solely responsible for all of the economic woes in communities across the United States, and with impoverished areas that haven’t seen the same sort of recovery as a lot of the country following the financial crisis that took place just as President Obama was being sworn into office.

Barf Bag Alert!!

 

When it comes to inner city streets being a prison pipeline, I have to say that Democrats share the blame for that aspect of the unrest. Republicans had targeted Democrats as "soft on crime" so many times, that Bill Clinton and the Democrats in Congress went overboard in the opposite direction. However, Republicans are far more to blame overall. Starving inner cities for finding, exporting urban jobs to the third world, the decimation of labor, the war on the poor, and the rabid racism that the Republican Party employ are just some of the reasons why.

Cartoon:

0503Cartoon

Godwin’s Law – a common meme used by fascists, pseudo-intellectuals, and people with their heads in the sand (or in smellier places), whenever anyone points out the verifiable commonalities between today’s Republican Party and Germany’s National Socialist Party.

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  19 Responses to “Open Thread–5/3/2015”

  1. For those unfamilar with the cartoon meme:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin%27s_law

    O'Malley's mayoral action of locking up one-sixth of their population for 24 hrs. without charges may have mislead current officials that they could do likewise, but that is the closest Faux comes to something factual.

    I doubt Indiana has many such projects that aren't at least partially federally funded and prevailing wage is a federal mandate for getting and using those funds (schools, universities, roads, bridges,water, public transit…)–so the state is going to pay double for the same instead?  Not going to be cost-effective if anyone does the math.

    One Daily Kos blogger suggested the GOP's best hope on ACA is to lose in court on their exchange case.

  2. 3:59 average still 4:39.  I think we have your number.  You didn't make it a live link because it was FISH!  Delicious fish!  Just be careful wih the lionfish, it's venomous.

    Daily Kos – It will certainly be – umm, interesting to watch.  Of course I hope it won't happen – but what a hope!

    NY Times – Yes, while we were all concentrating on national offices and officeholders, ALEC anf the Kochs were making hay in our states.  It is indeed scary.

    Crooks and Liars – Are you sure this isn't code for something like "If it weren't for liberals calling attention to injustice and demanding action, our militarized police could have gotten away with it because we would never have known any different, and everything would have been JUST FINE"?

    Cartoon – Godwin's Law may have had a usefulness at one time, but it is long out of date.  I would say 15 years out of date, but it may be longer.

    • Breaking news from the LA Times 5/3/2015 6:25 pm PDT
      Three shot outside Muhammad cartoon contest in Texas
      Two suspects and an officer were reportedly shot this evening outside a controversial Dallas-area event where organizers were holding a contest for cartoons featuring the Muslim prophet Muhammad, police said.

      Can anyone explain to me how anyone could have thought this contest would be a good idea?

  3. 3:27  My problem is that I was looking for Nemo.

  4. Mathew Segal's ATTN news email this week included:
    "The unrest in Baltimore was impossible to ignore this week, and ATTN: examined the state of inequality throughout the city, releasing this video.

    Among the most surprising facts about Baltimore:

    1) In Freddie Gray's neighborhood, 51.8 percent of residents were unemployed between 2008 and 2012, and the median income was $24,006 per year.

    2) 84 percent of Baltimore public school students are poor enough to qualify for free or reduced-price school lunches.

    3) 24 percent of Baltimore residents and 42 percent of children are on food stamps.

    There is no silver bullet solution to these problems. When kids go to school hungry, deprived of mentors and decent public schools, and without available job opportunities, there are few places to turn.

    But as President Obama stated this week, "If we think that we're just going to send the police to do the dirty work of containing the problems that arise there, without as a nation and a society saying what can we do, too, to change those communities, to help uplift those communities, and give those kids opportunities we're not going to solve this problem, and we'll go through the same cycles of periodic conflict with police and communities and the occasional riots in the streets."

    David Simon, former Baltimore Sun reporter and creator of HBO's The Wire was more blunt: "We [must] end the drug war," he told the Marshall Project. "I know I sound like a broken record, but we end the f**king drug war. The drug war gives everybody permission to do anything. It gives cops permission to stop anybody, to go in anyone’s pockets, to manufacture any lie when they get to district court…Medicalize the problem, decriminalize."

    I couldn't have put it better…

  5. 2.46 (40 pce Birds)

    Daily Kos – will be interesting to see how this plays out – though funding for the scheme until some Repugs don't need to get re-elected does sound devious…

    NY Times – I have to agree TC.

    From the little that I have seen, Baltimore's prosecutor Marilyn Mosby seems fair and good – but of course can only do so much without the rest of local and federal government playing their part too.  To solve these problems takes time – but that is no excuse for not rolling up our sleeves and starting now.

     

  6. Puzzle — 2.50  Just a reminder to Puddy Tats that this fishie is poisonous so fishie fricassée should be off the menu. The Moray eel is not so great either.

    Daily Kos — 18 months eh?  This is nothing but trying to buy the election!  Don't piss off the people before the election, but wait until after the election when politicians can't be "unelected".  Trouble is, with the Republicanus/Teabaggerum propensity to be deceitful, and so many of the American electorate uninformed and apathetic, this could become a reality.  Break out the Obama veto pen!!

    NY Times — While there is more than one way to screw the pooch, the Republicanus/Teabaggerum troglodytes are in charge of all of them!  If the Republicanus/Teabaggerum are not kicked to the curb like last week's trash, be prepared not to recognise the country anymore.  Why can we see what is happening but so many others don't?  It beggars belief!

    Crooks and Liars — The problems in Baltimore, as in many more large cities especially, are complex and are long time problems.  They are not the result of solely liberal administrations as the talking heads of Faux stated. Republicanus/Teabaggerum Saint Ronnie RayGun's trickle down economics, inequality, and racism, so prevalent from the right wing nut jobs, are guilty of doing much more damage.  It is time for the communities to come together to solve problems.  BTW, that is at least a 2 barf bag alert, more like a 4 bag alert!

  7. Daily Kos ~ They really put a noose around their own necks with these lawsuits. How do they think people will react if subsidies are take away? With praise and thanksgiving?  LOL

    NY Times ~ While people are begging for increased wages the ReThugs become mor Scrooge-like. Vote Republican? NOT!

    Crooks & Liars ~ I heard my neighbor echo these sentiments yesterday too, especially about Detroit. What they fail to mention is "trickle down" only works for the uber-wealthy.

    Cartoon ~ If the shoe fits… Never mind Godwin's Law.

  8. Thanks all!!  Swamped!

  9. Get the "Good news yet TC??. The clown car will have to be a stretch limo. Add Fiorina and Carlsen. Holy Cow.

     What I find a little demoralising. There are Morons out there who vote for these failures.

    America you are in DEEP (you know,)

    All the best TC> \\

    • Forget the car, forget the limo – they're going to need a bus … a BIG BUS!

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