Politics Plus

I’m writing for tomorrow and debating whether or not to start sorting and filing a huge box of paper, now that I have installed frames for hanging folders in my desk drawers.  The smart money is betting on QUACK!  May the divine light of the holy Ellipsoid Orb bless your team.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:59 (average 6:18).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube: ‘But for Race go I’

An excellent piece on racism at the Republican Convention in 2000.

From TPM: It’s already a bad year for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) according to Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergran Grimes (D), who is running against the top Senate Republican.

A spokeswoman noted that in the first three days of 2014, McConnell was passed up for an endorsement by a local GOP county chairman and news broke that the Senate Conservatives Fund spent about $1 million to boost Republican primary challenger Matt Bevin.

Great News! The more money Bought Bitch Mitch has to spend in the primary, the less he will have left for the general. A loss to Grimes would be a coup of epic proportions!

From Think Progress: While almost all working Americans will pay into Social Security through their paychecks throughout the year, the 900 wealthiest people in the country won’t. That’s because the highest-earning 0.0001 percent of the U.S. — many of them corporate CEOs — made $117,000 in the first two days of the year, which is the maximum annual income that is subject to Social Security taxes under federal law.

It’s tough to say for certain who will be a part of this group in 2014, since the most recent available data on Americans’ earnings is from 2012. In that year, 894 individuals nationwide made enough to qualify for membership in this club, according to the Los Angeles Times. Economist Teresa Ghilarducci came up with the calculation, and points out that Forbes data on top earners enables analysts and the public to see some of the members of this group. There were nearly 70 corporate CEOs who made enough to qualify in 2012, including the top officers at companies like Philip Morris, NewsCorp, Starbucks, ComCast, and Pfizer.

Scrap the cap on income over $1,000,000!!

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I’m writing for tomorrow and taking a relatively lazy day, after a hard day yesterday.  The roast beef dinner turned out just right, and in addition to feeding less fortunate friends, I took a plate to the desk clerk, who had to work the holiday.  Shortly, I shall be wrapping myself around some leftovers.  On Friday, I hope to finish squaring this place away.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:39 (average 5:35).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Think Progress: On Wednesday, nearly four years after President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act, the major provisions of the health law that serve to expand coverage to millions of Americans officially took effect. Insurers are no longer allowed to discriminate against people with pre-existing conditions, or charge sick Americans higher prices than their healthier counterparts. And now, the Americans who have enrolled in new plans under Obamacare — either by picking a private plan on the state-level marketplaces, or by qualifying for Medicaid in the states that agreed to expand the program — may start using that coverage.

According to the Department of Health and Human Services, about six million people signed up for Obamacare’s coverage expansion so far. It’s not yet clear exactly how many of those people gained new insurance on January 1; some of them may not have paid their first premium yet, and ongoing technical problems with the state marketplaces may delay some people’s coverage from kicking in immediately.

Regardless of the official enrollment numbers, however, New Years Eve marked an important milestone for the health insurance industry. “It’s the last day a cancer patient can be told by their insurance company that cancer treatments aren’t covered and it’s the last day people can face limits on their coverage in the future,” White House adviser Phil Schiliro told MSNBC on Tuesday. “That’s just enormous.”

And some of people who woke up to new health insurance options on Wednesday aren’t wasting any time using their new plans.

At long last we will have truly positive examples with which to begin to counter four years of Republican lies.

From NY Times: Bill de Blasio, whose fiery populism propelled his rise from obscure neighborhood official to the 109th mayor of New York, was sworn into office on Wednesday, pledging that his ambition for a more humane and equal metropolis would remain undimmed.

In his inaugural address, Mayor de Blasio described social inequality as a “quiet crisis” on a par with the other urban cataclysms of the city’s last half-century, from fiscal collapse to crime waves to terrorist attacks, and said income disparity was a struggle no less urgent to confront.

“We are called to put an end to economic and social inequalities that threaten to unravel the city we love,” he said to about 5,000 people at the ceremony, many beneath blankets on a numbingly cold day.

I wish de Blasio every success, and think he is the best thing to happen to NYC in a generation or more!

From US News: For the 1.3 million Americans who lost long-term unemployment benefits in December, there may be hope.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., told The Associated Press he will bring legislation to extend long-term jobless benefits to the floor on Monday, the first day the Senate returns to work in the new year. The inaugural vote may signal the Democrats’ 2014 election strategy: to reduce economic disparity between the wealthy and poor.

This is a positive development, because it gives Republicans the choice of supporting it or exposing themselves in an election year. If it passes the Senate, it can then be used to put House Republicans on display.

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I’ve been working my tail off for six hours preparing for tomorrow’s monthly report, and researching this article, and cooking at the same time, so I’m feeling pretty pooped today.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:36 (average 5:09).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From The New Yorker: As the curtain comes down on the Michael Bloomberg era, the three-term mayor of New York received fulsome praise last night from his most appreciative constituency: the people who can still afford to live there.

Harland Dorrinson, principal owner of the hedge fund Garrote Capital, hosted a black-tie dinner in the vault of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to pay tribute to a mayor who, in Mr. Dorrinson’s words, “put living in New York out of the reach of everyone except the deserving few.”

“To a lot of people, Mike Bloomberg will be remembered for reducing smoking and improving people’s diets,” said Mr. Dorrinson. “But that shouldn’t overshadow his greatest accomplishment, creating unaffordable housing throughout New York.”

“When Mike took office, this city was teeming with regular working people,” Mr. Dorrinson said, shuddering at the memory. “Today, it’s a magnificent tapestry of investment bankers, real-estate developers, and Russian oligarchs.”

As much as I liked Bloomberg’s stance on gun-control, he was a Bankster’s wet dream, otherwise.

From Upworthy: He Starts With 17 Lego Pieces And Ends Up With 6. The Reason Why Involves All Of Us.

Depressing as it is, he’s right!

From NY Times: A federal judge on Tuesday struck down as unconstitutional a Florida law that required welfare applicants to undergo mandatory drug testing, setting the stage for a legal battle that could affect similar efforts nationwide.

Judge Mary S. Scriven of the United States District Court in Orlando held that the testing requirement, the signature legislation of Gov. Rick Scott, a Republican who campaigned on the issue, violated the protection against unreasonable searches.

“The court finds there is no set of circumstances under which the warrantless, suspicionless drug testing at issue in this case could be constitutionally applied,” she wrote. The ruling made permanent an earlier, temporary ban by the judge.

Mr. Scott, who had argued that the drug testing was necessary to protect children and ensure that tax money was not going to illegal drugs, said that the state would appeal the ruling.

Extremist Republican Governor Scott wants you to believe that his profit from owning the lab that does the testing has nothing to do with it. Geez! You can fertilize the lawn with that one!

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