Politics Plus

It’s day 86.  I was up most of the night working on my network and will be doing the same today, so I’m feeling totally pooped and this is today’s only article.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:24 (average 4:41).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: Former Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson has been a key part of the legal challenge to subsidies under Obamacare, and figures prominently in the King v. Burwell case before the Supreme Court. The Democrat had been a key holdout in the Senate during debate, and was insistent that states be given as much autonomy as possible under the federal law. That included separate state health insurance exchanges. The House Democrats’ bill had one exchange, and it was largely Nelson’s holding out that forced the state exchanges in the Senate bill and the eventual law. The King plaintiffs are using Nelson’s position to support their theory that Congress intended to withhold subsidies from the states unless they established their own exchanges, in an attempt to force states to do it.

They just lost the Ben Nelson argument.

Nelson, who announced his retirement in 2011, speaks for himself in a brief filed by Democratic congressional leaders and others.

"I always believed that tax credits should be available in all 50 states regardless of who built the exchange, and the final law also reflects that belief as well," Nelson wrote in a letter to Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) who sought Nelson’s view. […]

Nelson said he wanted only for the exchanges to be tailored to the needs of each state.

"In either scenario—a state or federal exchange—our purpose was clear: to provide states the tools necessary to deliver affordable healthcare to their citizens, and clearly the subsidies are a critical component of that effort regardless of which exchange type a state chooses," Nelson responded.

If SCROTUS (Republican Constitutional VD) decide against the ACA now they will broadcast that they are legislating from the bench. Is is also the first time I have ever been thankful for something said by "Benedict Arnold" Nelson.  He may have just saved our bacon.

From MoveOn: Republicans in Congress want to work with the Obama administration to fast-track the passage of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).

The TPP is the largest—and worst—trade deal you’ve never heard of, having been devised in secret by representatives of some of the world’s largest corporations.

It’s so big and has the potential to do so much damage, it’s been likened to “NAFTA on steroids.”

I have to admit that I’ve been ambivalent about this, because there is so much we do nor know, but I trust the Reich on the left, Robert Reich, as much as I distrust the Reich on the Right, the Republican Reich.

From NY Times: An overwhelming majority of the American public, including nearly half of Republicans, support government action to curb global warming, according to a poll conducted by The New York Times, Stanford University and the nonpartisan environmental research group Resources for the Future.

In a finding that could have implications for the 2016 presidential campaign, the poll also found that two-thirds of Americans say they are more likely to vote for political candidates who campaign on fighting climate change. They are less likely to vote for candidates who question or deny the science of human-caused global warming.

Click through for more info. What the American people think and what Republican politicians do are mutually exclusive universes.

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It’s day 85, and it’s turning into a very busy day.  I am not a fan or supporter of Comcast, but for my building, I have two choices for broadband, that or my current provider Clear.  Clear has been purchased by Sprint, and they just raised their prices.  In addition, their service has dropped off.  I used to get 7 Megabits consistently, and now I’m getting 5 on a good day.  As much as I hate to do it, I can actually save money with Comcast and get 120 Megabit service.  I’m waiting for the installer to come.  That means that two of my five main email addresses will change, and I’ll have to inform a lot of suppliers.

It’s in.  Damn it’s fast!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 5:09 (average 5:34).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: The "Anti-Commandeering" Rule: In 1997, by a 5-4 vote, the Supreme Court, created an "anti-commandeering" rule, which bans Congress from ordering state officials to carry out federal duties. The case was brought by two county sheriffs, who did not want to do background checks for firearm sales as ordered by the Brady Act. The new rule led to holes in the database that would allow persons prone to violence, like the killer in the 2007 Virginia Tech mass shooting, to get firearms. Stevens notes that the "anti-commandeering" rule could also cripple other Congressional acts, from routine administration of federal programs to emergency responses to national catastrophes or acts of terror. His fix adds four words (in bold below) to the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause:

This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges and other public officials in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.

This is just one of six proposed Constitutional Amendments written by retired Supreme Court Justice, John Paul Stevens, to help fix the damage done to America by the Fascist Five Republican Injustices of SCROTUS (Republican Constitutional VD). Click through for the other five.

From The New Yorker: In a historic Oval Office ceremony on Thursday morning, President Barack Obama signed an executive order closing Congress, effective immediately.

The President said that the move would dramatically increase the efficiency of the federal government, noting how much he had accomplished since he stopped working with Congress in November.

Additionally, he said, the elimination of Congress would result in annual savings of more than five billion dollars, which Obama said would be refunded to American taxpayers.

Acknowledging that “some sticklers” would argue that the Constitution calls for three branches of government, the President said, “All this order does is reduce that number by one.”

The initial public reaction to the President’s decision appeared to be overwhelmingly positive, as news of the executive order sent his approval rating soaring to seventy-nine percent.

Bad, Andy!! Bad!! How dare you tease us with such a beautiful idea?!!?

From NBC: U.S. regulators on Thursday raised the standard for high-speed Internet, voting that only connections with download speeds of 25 megabits per second or faster will qualify as broadband. The Federal Communications Commission’s previous definition of broadband was a download speed of at least 4 Mbps. The change, opposed by Internet service providers and Republican FCC commissioners, means nearly a fifth of Americans and more than half of those living in rural areas now lack access to high-speed Internet. The change is not expected to immediately influence how competitive the FCC formally views the broadband market. But it could give the agency more of a bully pulpit to push Internet service providers to increase connection speeds and support competitors formed by municipalities.

Excellent idea.  This article is what set me off.

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It’s day 84.  I’m writing and waiting for Store to door to deliver groceries, which I will then put away.  I’m feeling pretty tired, because my body is trying to revert to the old schedule, but I knew this would take time.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:34 (average 6:51).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Huffington Post: Punk rock band Dropkick Murphys is not happy with Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R).

In fact, the band tweeted its members "literally hate" Walker, who used the band’s song "I’m Shipping Up to Boston" as intro music ahead of his speech at Saturday’s Iowa Freedom Summit.

Until I saw this, I had never heard of Dropkick Murphys. I became an instant fan, even though Punk Rock does nothing for me. Dropkick the Fartfuhrer of Fitzwalkerstan!

From YouTube: State rep threatens to reveal peers’ affairs / LGBT, Equality, Alabama

I would love to see her do it. Republican Family Values means only that Republicans love to intrude into YOUR family’s values.

From Think Progress: At least professionally, the Bernalillo County District Attorney’s office has already paid for filing murder charges against two cops who shot and killed a homeless man in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Just a day after DA Kari Brandenburg announced for the first time in recent memory that she would pursue criminal charges against cops for an on-duty deadly shooting, there was another police shooting in the city, which has seen a spate of fatal police shootings since 2010 at eight times the rate of New York City.

And when a prosecutor from Brandenburg’s office went to the scene and sought to attend an investigative briefing, as prosecutors had been doing for years as part of their collection of evidence, police wouldn’t let her in. They claimed that now that the DA’s office had filed criminal charges against a cop, they had a “conflict of interest” and should be excluded.

This is clearly abuse of police power and the officers responsible should be severely punished.

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